ABSTRACT
For elections to the United Kingdom Parliament, the system of election remains the simple majority (first past the post) system. The origins of the voting system lie in tradition, and the voting system is not a matter of law, but of past political practice. One principal merit of the system lies in its simplicity. The candidate who gains the largest number of votes in the election wins the seat – irrespective of the proportion of votes cast for himself or his opponents. To illustrate, if the votes cast for individual candidates at an election are Smith 3,200, Jones 2,700, Brown 2,500 (total votes 7,400), Smith wins the election, even though 5,200 voters, or 70 per cent, have voted for the other candidates. This lack of representativeness – when viewed from the perspective of proportionality of votes cast to seats won – is reflected in the results nationwide.
