On Thursday 5th May we get to have a say about the way we elect MPs in this country. We can either stick with “first past the post” or switch to something called “the alternative vote.” At successive elections for the last 50 years no single party has secured the vote of more than half of the electorate and the trend since 1992 has been for parties to get elected with smaller and smaller shares of the popular vote.

Supporters of the current system say that the most popular candidates wins. I am afraid that this is simply not true. About two thirds of candidates get less than half the vote in elections which means that more people vote against them than for them. What supporters of the current system mean is that the candidate with the most votes wins. That is not the same thing as being the most popular.

My view is that this is not sustainable and that it is bad for democracy if sizeable sections of the population are denied their fair share of representation. The Alternative Vote starts to address that problem by allowing voters to indicate a preference.

It is really a very simple system. Instead of putting an “x” on the ballot paper you rank candidates in order of preference. When the votes are counted, if someone doesn’t get 50% + 1 of the votes cast you eliminate the candidate who came last and redistribute the second preferences. If that does not get a candidate over the threshold you eliminate the next candidate and so on unti a candidate gets over the 50% mark.

I think this is a positive step forward in creating a voting system that better reflects views in the country. We should not be afraid  t0 embrace this change. It gives voters real power and a vote that counts.