Electoral Reform Society: Kiwis face their own reform referendum

Tuesday, 16 February 2010 12:00 AM

New Zealand, which is planning a referendum on its electoral system in 2011, is showing Britain the way, according to the Electoral Reform Society.[1]

Last week the Commons backed a bill which, if it completes its journey through parliament before the election, will give us a referendum on whether we should change to the Alternative Vote (AV) system. While electoral reformers have welcomed this move, they have done so without much enthusiasm, arguing that AV is not enough to bring about the changes they want in our political system.

Ken Ritchie, Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, said:

"The Government wants to offer us a referendum on whether we elect MPs using AV or our present 'first-past-the-post' system. But they will not give us the option of choosing a much better system, such as STV which would give us the advantages of AV and also a more representative parliament.

By contrast, in New Zealand the Government is proposing a two-question referendum. People will be asked firstly if they want change, and secondly what sort of change. That would allow a real debate on the merits of different electoral systems and would let us, the voter, take the decision on the type of politics we want.

It is important that our politicians should be prepared to support the Government's planned referendum on AV if that is all we can get - we don't want a repeat of 1931 when a chance of progress was lost in arguments between supporters of different systems. [2] But any opportunity to move from AV to STV, which would give us results that better reflect what voters want, simply has to be taken."

Notes to editors:

[1] New Zealand's governing National Party is acting on a manifesto commitment to offer a referendum for change from New Zealand's current Additional Member System (AMS) (known in New Zealand as Multi Member Proportional (MMP)), operated in the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament. The National Party have expressed hostility to proportional representation, which was introduced following a successful referendum in 1993.

The proposed questions are:

Part A
Should the current MMP voting system be retained?
*I vote to retain the MMP voting system
*I vote to change to another voting system.

Part B
Regardless of how you voted under part A, if there was a change to another voting system, which voting system would you choose?

*I would choose the First Past the Post system.
*I would choose the Preferential Voting system.
*I would choose the Single Transferable Vote system.
*I would choose the Supplementary Member system.
Voters can choose to answer one or both questions.

Wording of the proposed referendum is available online: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/3335382/Proposed-MMP-referendum-wording-released

[2] Ramsay MacDonald's minority Labour administration (1929-31) passed a bill on the Alternative Vote through the House of Commons which fell when it reached the House of Lords in 1931.

For further information, contact:

Ashley Dé 07968791684 or Dr Ken Ritchie on 07754165551

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