ABSTRACT
The Labour Government came to power in 1997 committed to major electoral reform, and to holding a referendum to ascertain the people’s view. Substantial reform has taken place. The 1999 elections to the new Scottish Parliament employed the additional member system, as did election to the new National Assembly for Wales. The 1999 elections to the Northern Ireland Assembly employed the single transferable vote system, one already utilised for elections in Northern Ireland to the European Parliament and for local elections. The 1999 elections for the European Parliament in the rest of the United Kingdom saw the introduction of a new system of proportional representation based on party lists. Despite these reforms, no move has yet been made to reform the simple majority system employed for election to the United Kingdom Parliament. In this section, the merits and demerits of differing systems are considered.
