ON THE eve of the election which could change the UK electoral process, one of Britain's most prominent black politicians is urging the community to consider voting yes to the AV (Alternative Voting) system.
Voters will head to the polling booths on Thursday, May 5, to choose either the current First Past the Post system or AV - proposed by the Liberal Democrats as part of their campaign for electoral reform.
Labour MP for Tottenham, David Lammy, shares his views on why he will be choosing to vote in favour of AV.
"The BNP wants your vote next Thursday. In the referendum on how MPs are elected, Nick Griffin’s party is fighting hard to stop a system that puts power with the mainstream majority. This is how the BNP's deputy chairman Simon Darby puts it, "We are never going to get our feet under the table under the AV system." Vote yes and together we can shut the BNP out forever.
The alternative vote makes it harder for any party to win with an extremist message that appeals only to a small hardcore of voters. It forces politicians to broaden their appeal because more people’s votes count. The BNP know that under first past the post all they have to do is scrape together 25 or 30% of the vote in a divided race: under AV they could never win the majority support they would need.
The Conservatives want your vote too. They want you to vote “No” and keep the system that has made them the natural party of government for over 100 years. For all the reforms made by Labour governments of the 20th Century, they were only in power for 24 years. First Past The Post exploits the divide in the progressive majority in this country and keeps the Tories in power. Our community has relied on left-of-centre governments to deal it a fair hand. But the Race Relations Act and an inquiry into the murder of Stephen Lawrence are worth little if we continue to use an election system that supports a Conservative government that has historically been so negligent and ignorant towards our culture and community. The Alternative Vote will change that. It will deliver a system that gives parties who believe in a multicultural Britain a level playing field.
It’s not a revolution: it’s a very British reform, keeping the best aspects of the current set-up. MPs would still have the link to their constituency, speaking out on the issues that matter to local communities. MPs would still have to go out answer for their individual records. And people would still have the power to throw out unpopular governments. AV is not a recipe for more coalitions.
But we have the chance to change the things that infuriate people. No-one would have to vote tactically in elections. People would be able to vote for who they believe in, not just who they believe they can win.
Instead, if no-one succeeded in winning a democratic mandate, the candidate with the fewest votes would be eliminated, and in effect you would have another round to the election – until someone gets that majority. Conveniently, you don’t have to actually hold another poll: it’s all done in the count based on the order of preference people put on the ballot paper.
The opponents of AV like to repeat some bizarre myths about it. First of all, no-one gets more than one vote. Everyone’s vote counts the same in every round. It’s not going to cost much more than the current system. In Australia they count votes under AV just fine by hand, as they have since 1918 – and there is no evidence we’d need to do it any differently here.
Nor will AV inevitably lead to endless hung parliaments and coalition governments. Again, Australia has had AV since 1918 – and they’ve just had their first coalition government in 38 elections. Canada has permanent hung parliaments under FPTP, and permanent coalitions. And you might have noticed that we’ve got a hung parliament now – elected, of course, under First Past The Post.
What AV will do is go a little way towards making governments and MPs more accountable. Under FPTP so many constituencies are safe for one party or another that only 1.6% of the population in a handful of swing seats actually decided the outcome of the election. The parties are under pressure to focus all their energy – and all their policies – on a tiny part of the country. AV won’t be a magic wand. But it will force parties to worry about a wider range of votes, it will make seats a little less safe, and it will make it a little easier to throw out an MP if they are dishonest. Above all, it will give a little more power to the people. And that’s something we all deserve."
