Electoral Systems Statistics Flashcards
FPTP - strong government
In 1997, Tony Blair carried out constitutional reforms after a large election victory where Labour won 418 seats.
Average constituency size
The average constituency size in England is 72,000.
FPTP - concentrated support
In the 2015 general election, the SNP’s 1.4 million votes were highly concentrated in Scotland and translated into 56 seats whilst UKIP’s 3.8 million votes translated into 1 seat.
FPTP - wasted votes
In 2017, the North East Fife Constituency saw 67% of votes wasted for losing candidates with the SNP winning the constituency by a majority of 2 votes.
STV - multimember constituencies
In the 2017 Northern Ireland Assembly election, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had 3 candidates and Alliance had 2 candidates standing in the Belfast East constituency.
FPTP - outcome fairness
In the 2017 general election which uses FPTP, the Liberal Democrats won over 7% of the vote but under 2% of seats in Parliament. UKIP won 600,000 votes but no seats.
SV - large support
SV ensures large support for the winning candidate such as with Sadiq Khan winning 56.8% of the total vote in the 2016 London Mayor election.
SV - wasted votes
In the 2012 London Mayor election, 15% of votes were wasted in round one and over 7% of votes in round two.
AV referendum - outcome
In 2011 the UK voted against changing from FPTP to AV for general elections by 67.9% to 32.1%.
EU referendum - outcome
In 2016 the UK voted in favour of leaving the EU by 51.9% to 48.1%.
Regional Assemblies referendum - outcome
In 2004 regions in England voted on regional assemblies. The North East of England rejected an assembly, voting 78% against the proposal.
Referendums - increasing political engagement
Some UK referendums have increased political engagement with high turnouts, such as 81% in the 1998 Northern Ireland Good Friday Agreement referendum and 84.6% in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.
Referendums - clear outcome
In 1997 Scottish Parliament referendum over 74% of people voted in favour of a Scottish Parliament which addressed the issue of whether Scotland should have its own parliament.
