Voting Referendum Announced

by Katy Murcutt - Paralegal

02 July 2010, filed under Consumer

The potential date for a referendum to change the UKs current voting system has been scheduled for 5th May 2011.

Although the Conservatives had opposed a referendum, they conceded to the Liberal Democrats as part of the coalition deal. It is believed that such a referendum will instigate further changes to constituency boundaries, in a bid to each constituency of a more equal size.

The official date of next year’s referendum will be confirmed at next Tuesday’s cabinet meeting and shall later that day be announced by Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. However, the necessary changes to legislation to implement such constitutional reforms shall not take place until autumn and are likely to be challenged by Conservative MPs. Under the coalition deal, the Conservatives must support the Liberal Democrats wish for a referendum, but will be free to oppose this change when the amendments to legislation are being debated.

The Conservatives have stated that the current voting system provides a level of assurance of a stable and dependable government. In contrast, the Liberal Democrats have argued that the current system is unfair as smaller parties do not have an equal chance as many candidates are elected even though they only have the support of a minority of constituents.

Under the proposed new voting system, voters will rank candidates in a series of rounds by order of preference, with any candidates receiving less than 50% of votes being ejected after the first round. If this does not occur, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes will be eliminated. This process will continue until a winning candidate has emerged.

A government spokesperson said yesterday that holding the referendum on the same day as the election should increase the number of voters who turnout to cast their vote.

The outcome of the Liberal Democrats campaign and the Conservatives assumed opposition may compel the coalition deal to be terminated.

Conservative MP Daniel Kawczynski has said that he is very concerned over the proposed new voting system and would oppose the system strongly.

The Conservatives are generally concerned that there will be two types of voting systems systematically running by default as old and new voters struggle to correlate their respective standpoints.

The Electoral Reform Society has welcomed the Liberal Democrats proposed changes to the current voting system. The Society believes that a new system would expel old, dictatorial politics.

The previous Labour government had also promised a referendum, which it had planned to hold in late 2011. Shadow foreign secretary David Milliband has said that should he win leadership of the Labour party, he will support the Liberal Democrats and campaign in favour of a referendum.

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