McConnell urged to change rules for PR votingBy Nicholas Christian
Published February 1st 2004 in The Scotsman on Sunday
Opposition parties yesterday demanded the Scottish Executive accept the advice of its own expert group and alter plans for proportional representation voting in local council elections to make them fairer.
First Minister Jack McConnell agreed to replace first-past-the-post (FPTP) with the single transferable vote (STV) in the post-election coalition deal with the Lib Dems, despite strong opposition from Labour backbenchers and councillors who favour the status quo.
But an interim report by the independent STV working group recommends ministers go further and alter the Local Governance (Scotland) Bill, now in parliament, to allow some wards to have five seats and others, in the remotest areas, to have two.
This flexibility would allow wards to be allocated more accurately in terms of natural communities, geography and parity, the experts said.
However, aides to McConnell said it would take "a great deal of persuading" to change the plans already agreed with the Lib-Dems.
Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan, who is on the Local Government Committee that will quiz Lib-Dem and Labour ministers on the bill next week, said that the report was a "huge embarrassment" to the coalition.
The report, issued on Wednesday, cites evidence that the coalition’s plans would be the least proportional system of PR that exists and that allowing five-member wards would improve proportionality.
First Minister Jack McConnell agreed to replace first-past-the-post (FPTP) with the single transferable vote (STV) in the post-election coalition deal with the Lib Dems, despite strong opposition from Labour backbenchers and councillors who favour the status quo.
But an interim report by the independent STV working group recommends ministers go further and alter the Local Governance (Scotland) Bill, now in parliament, to allow some wards to have five seats and others, in the remotest areas, to have two.
This flexibility would allow wards to be allocated more accurately in terms of natural communities, geography and parity, the experts said.
However, aides to McConnell said it would take "a great deal of persuading" to change the plans already agreed with the Lib-Dems.
Socialist leader Tommy Sheridan, who is on the Local Government Committee that will quiz Lib-Dem and Labour ministers on the bill next week, said that the report was a "huge embarrassment" to the coalition.
The report, issued on Wednesday, cites evidence that the coalition’s plans would be the least proportional system of PR that exists and that allowing five-member wards would improve proportionality.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.