The Alternative Vote Referendum
19 February 2011
A UK-wide referendum on the voting system used to elect MPs to the House of Commons will take place on 5 May 2011 alongside the Scottish Parliament election.
Following Royal Assent to the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act, voters in Scotland will vote on the same day
1. for a constituency MSP,
2. for a political List MSP, and
3. in the Referendum to decide whether we use the ‘first past the post’ or the ‘alternative vote’ system to elect future MPs to the UK Parliament.
The Scottish Christian Party is in favour of national referendums, but only after there has been time for reasoned debate. Referendums are rare in Britain. The only referendum put to the entire UK electorate was the United Kingdom European Communities membership referendum in 1975, after much public debate. This is the first UK-wide referendum since then, but the public hardly knows what it is about. Our 2011 Manifesto states:
“We believe that the time frame to vote on the UK Parliamentary Alternative Vote (AV) referendum on 5/5/2011 is too short for a meaningful decision. This is another example of the top-down dogmatic approach of the coalition Conservative-Liberal-Democratic Government. Having moved the local government election from the same day, for good reasons, we are at a loss to know the good reason for having the AV referendum on the same day as the Scottish Parliamentary election at such short notice.”
The Electoral Commission will send an information booklet to all 27.8 million households in the UK explaining what elections are taking place, the wording of the referendum question, the difference between the ‘first past the post’ and the ‘alternative vote’ systems, and how to take part in the referendum and the elections on 5 May 2011.
Click here to see a youtube video explaining the alternative vote and how to vote for it in the coming election.
