United Kingdom alternative vote referendum, 2011

United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum

At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?

Location

United Kingdom

Date

5 May 2011

Results
	Votes	%
Yes	6,152,607	7001321000000000000♠32.10%
No	13,013,123	7001679000000000000♠67.90%
Valid votes	19,165,730	7001994100000000000♠99.41%
Invalid or blank votes	113,292	6999590000000000000♠0.59%
Total votes	19,279,022	100.00%
Registered voters/turnout	45,684,501	7001422000000000000♠42.2%

Results by local counting areas

Yes 60–62.5% Yes 57.5–60% Yes 55–57.5% Yes 52.5–55% Yes 50–52.5% No 50–52.5% No 52.5–55% No 55–57.5% No 57.5–60% No 60–62.5% No 62.5–65% No 65–67.5% No 67.5–70% No 70–72.5% No 72.5–75% No >75%

The United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, as part of the Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement drawn up after the 2010 general election, was a nationwide vote held on Thursday 5 May 2011 (the same date as local elections in many areas) to choose the method of electing MPs at subsequent general elections. The referendum concerned whether to replace the present "first-past-the-post" system with the "alternative vote" (AV) method. The proposal to introduce AV was rejected by the electorate.

This was only the second UK-wide referendum to be held (the first being the EC referendum in 1975) and is to date the only UK-wide referendum to be held on an issue not related to the European Economic Community (Common Market) or European Union and was also the first that was not merely consultative; being "post-legislative" and therefore committing the government to give effect to its decision.

All registered electors over 18 (British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens living in the UK and enrolled British citizens living outside) – including Members of the House of Lords (who cannot vote in UK general elections) – were entitled to take part.

On a turnout of 42.2 per cent, 68 per cent voted "No" and 32 per cent voted "Yes". Ten of the 440 local counting areas recorded 'Yes' votes above 50 per cent; six in London, and those in Oxford, Cambridge and Edinburgh Central and Glasgow Kelvin in Scotland.

The campaign was described in retrospect by political scientist Iain McLean as a "bad-tempered and ill-informed public debate".

AV and the single transferable vote (STV) for the House of Commons were debated in Parliament several times between 1917 and 1931 and came close to being adopted. Both the Liberals and Labour were in support at various times of a change from non-transferable voting in one-, two- and three-member constituencies. STV was adopted for the university seats (which were abolished in 1949). Both AV and STV involve voters rank ordering preferences. However, STV is considered to be a form of proportional representation, using multi-member constituencies, while AV, in single-member constituencies, is not.

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Wikipedia