Politics - Elections Cont...

STV is the electoral system that is used to elect memebers of the Northern Ireland Assembly. STV involves alot of Candidates and requires the voter to rank their chooses.

Strenghts of STV

• It is very proportional, the number of votes reflects the number of seats gained
• You get a better choice/range of candidates and preference your votes

Weaknessess of STV

• You will always have a coaltion governement, note this is an advantage in Northern Ireland because of all the problems they have had in the past.
• The process of counting takes a long time
• The process of voting is confusing and may not be understood by everyone.

SV is the voting system used to elect the Major of London and also the French president. Each voter has two votes, their 1st choice and 2nd choice. If one candiate receives over 50% then they are elected, if not then the two candidates go onto the second round; this is because you need to gain a majority to win in SV

Strengths of SV

• Gives voters a second choice
• Preserves constituencies

Weaknesses of SV

• Can take a long time for a result to be reached
• Lots of votes can get wasted if that candiate does not make it to the next round of voting
• Smaller parties are usually forgotten about.

AMS is the electoral system used by Scotland and Wales to elect their members for their Assemblies. Voters have two votes, one through FPTP and the other through the list system.

Strengths of AMS

• Its more proportional than most electoral systems.
• Gives voters two choices
• Preserves constituency representation

Weaknesses of AMS

• Can be confusing to vote.
• many representives are accounatable to their party and not the voter.