Plans to change the way MPs are elected have been overwhelmingly rejected by voters. More than two thirds of people voted to reject the Alternative Vote (AV) system in the first UK-wide referendum for 36 years. 

By Stephen Palmer – For a referendum that is supposed to be about “fairer votes” and “more democracy”, it is ironic that the choice on offer in the coming AV poll is practically no choice at all. 

The British National Party will call on its supporters to vote “no” in a referendum on changing Britain’s electoral system to the Alternative Voting (AV) system because it is fundamentally unfair to smaller parties.

As part of his deal to become deputy Prime Minister, Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg has abandoned his party’s policy of introducing a proportional representation “single transferable vote” (STV) system for the “alternative vote” (AV) system which the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has dismissed as “even more disproportional than the first-past-the-post” system.