This week Westminster has been preoccupied by possible changes in the voting system. The bill to give the people a referendum vote on whether to move to the Alternative Vote system or not was granted a second reading on Monday. The history of this measure is complex. It failed to get a Parliamentary majority in

The House of Commons yesterday voted by 365 votes to 187 to hold a UK-wide referendum on changing the voting system next year from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote. The Lib Dems reluctantly voted for the alternative vote, as the most modest of improvements on the current, broken system. But the party, in the person

Well, MPs did in the end vote to hold a referendum on introducing a new voting system - the Alternative Vote - to Westminster elections, but it is hardly a game changer. It will only happen if Labour win the next election outright (a coalition with the Liberals would presumably produce a more proportional suggestion), and then it is only a commitment to hold a referendum. But it has at least focus...

Details of the referendum on introducing the alternative vote (AV) electoral system were revealed by the Government yesterday.

The referendum is a choice between sticking with our current system or replacing it with the obscure, unfair and expensive Alternative Vote, writes Lord Reid.

The Electoral Reform Society web site gives an excellent summary of the pros and cons of the Alternative Vote system. On the same page you can click on other voting system names for similarly clear summaries.

Prime minister accused of cynicism for proposing a referendum on electoral reform after 13 years in which Labour governments have toyed with the idea of moving to the so-called alternative vote system

A LEADING Tory has launched a furious attack on the proposed referendum on Alternative Voting and denounced the system as "unsatisfactory, un-British, and causing frustrat

Over at The Guardian’s Comment Is Free site, Lib Dem shadow home secretary Chris Huhne argues Labour has got it wrong in proposing a referendum on the Alternative Vote: only the Single Transferable Vote will remedy the unfairness of the present system. Here’s an excerpt: [The Alternative Vote] is very similar to first-past-the-post in two key

Yesterday’s Times reported the news that David Cameron has decided not to spend his political capital campaigning against electoral reform, whenever the referendum on changing from first-past-the-post to the alternative vote is to be held: Cameron insisted he remained a supporter of the present voting system: “I will not change my view that the alternative vote