The Voting System

WASTED VOTE

• Any votes cast for a candidate who does not win in a constituency play no role in the selection of representatives in parliament, meaning they are effectively wasted.

SAFE SEATS

• Some constituencies elect a canddiate from the same party in every election and the level of support requried to win the constituency is so high that voters see no point in voting for a different party. 

UNREPRESENTATIVE

• Differences in the concentration of support across the UK mean that the result of the election does not reflect the way the public voted, with:

• UKIP winning 13% of the vote in 2015 but only 1 seat.
• SNP gaining 56 seats but only 2% of the national vote. 

WINNER'S BONUS

• The system exaggerates the support received by the most popular party, which means the party receives more seats than is proportional to the number of votes it received, therefore boosting its majority in parliament. 

DISCRIMINATES AGAINST PARTIES WITH WIDESPREAD SUPPORT

• Parties with support spread across the UK but not concentrated in a geographic area will find it difficult to gain seats and therrefore representation, such as the Greens, Liberal Democrats and UKIP. 

MINORITY CONSTITUENCIES

• In these constituencies, an MP wins the most votes but does not gain more than 50% of the total vote, meaning a majority of the public did not vote for their representative. 

TWO-PARTY SYSTEM

• It favours parties with a lot of support spread evenly across the country and generally results in one of the two main parties forming the government and the other forming an opposition or 'government in waiting'.