Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Alternative vote
- (Preferential) Majoritarian
- Winner has to achieve overall majority to
gain a seat
- How does it work?
- Voters rank candidates in order of
preference
- First choice votes counted
- If a candidate has gained 50% of the vote,
they're elected.
- If none of the candidates have gained a majority, the
second choice votes are taken into account
- The top two candidates retain their first
choice votes
- But all other candidates are eliminated and their
second choice votes for the two leaders are
counted
- The final totals of the two remaining candidates will produce an
outright winner
- Advantages
- All MPs would have the support of a majority of their voters
- Retains same constituencies - no need to redraw boundaries
- No observable erosion of the constituency - MP link
- Penalises extremist parties, as they're unlikely to gain
many second choice votes
- Reduces need for tactical voting
- Voters can vote for first choice without fear of
wasting their vote
- Reduces number of "safe seats"
- Encorages candidates to chase second and third
preferences, which lessens the need for negative campaigning
- One party doesn't want to alienate supporters of other candidates whose
second preferences they want
- Disadvantages
- Not proportional representation
- Certain electoral conditions (landslides) can produce a
more disproportional result than FPTP
- In close three-way races the "compromise" candidate could be
defeated in the first round even though they may be more broadly
acceptable to the electorate than the top two candidates
- Lower preferences can potentially produce a "lowest common denminator"
winner without much positive support of their own
- Donkey Voting - voters vote for vandidates in the
order they appear on the ballot
- Where is it used?
- Labour leadership elections
- Liberal Democrats leadership elections
- House of Lords by elections