An Elections Bill is coming – but will it include fair votes?The government is bringing in new laws to improve our elections – and this is our chance to make things better. After years of broken promises and an electoral system that has consistently left millions...Posted 05 Feb 2026
Why First Past the Post leaves most of us without voice in parliamentWe live in a country where each constituency has a single MP. Yet for most people this means the MP who “represents” them in parliament doesn’t share their politics, didn’t win a majority of the...Posted 15 Jan 2026
Closed Lists were a misstep, cross-party STV bill would put the Senedd back on trackWales stands at an important crossroads in its democratic journey. ERS Cymru has developed a proposal to change the way we elect members of the Senedd, replacing the planned closed-list system with the Single Transferable...Posted 22 Oct 2025
Councillors keep winning with less than a third of the vote – what can England and Wales learn from Scotland?Each week, usually on a Thursday, a number of local council by-elections take place around Britain. As with UK parliamentary by-elections, these take place when a representative either resigns or dies and there is a...Posted 23 Sep 2025
MPs vote to cut short First Past the Post’s imposition on MayorsOn 2 September 2025, the House of Commons held the second reading of the English Devolution & Community Empowerment Bill. While the bill covers many areas, one of the clauses is something we have been...Posted 03 Sep 2025
Why all local councils should be elected with proportional representationIf you live in England, you might be casting a vote for a councillor in a local election this May – and with your vote, expressing your desire for how you’d like your local services...Posted 08 Apr 2025
What voting system does the UK use for general elections?Voting systems are the methods we use to elect representatives, like MPs or local councillors. They lay out rules about the way votes are cast and counted. Which system do we use in general elections...Posted 11 Feb 2025
How would proportional representation work in the UK?Proportional Representation (PR) is the idea that seats in parliament should closely match votes cast in an election. A system that’s perfectly proportional would mean that if a political party received one third of the...Posted 16 Jan 2025
Majority of councillors vote for STV in Gwynedd, but vote fails to reach high threshold by one voteThere was a disappointing outcome in Gwynedd this afternoon as we just fell short in winning the council’s vote on changing the voting system to the Single Transferable Vote (STV) by a single vote. The...Posted 24 Oct 2024
It’s 3 for 3! Residents’ consultation in Ceredigion is the third to back fair votes under STVThere was more fantastic news out of Wales today, as Ceredigion County Council released the results of their consultation on whether to change the voting system used at local elections to the fairer Single Transferable...Posted 23 Oct 2024