DEVOLVED ASSEMBLIES

In common with the Irish Republic, Northern Ireland uses the single transferable vote (STV) for local and regional elections. This system is thought to be best suited to overcoming some of the religious and sectarian problems that exist in the province. For example, key features of the system are multi-member constituencies and preferential voting, where voters place candidates in order of preference. As this system ensures that in each constituency there are a number of representatives, whatever a person's political or religious preference, social class, racial group, age or gender, there is usually a represntative that the voter would feel comfortable in contacting.

The new Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly were elected for the first time in May 1999, and both use the additional member system (AMS). This is a hybrid system that uses both first-past-the-post and top-up lists that are put together by party headquarters.

In the 2003 elections, the Scottish National Party won 27 seats. It is the second largest party and is the official opposition. Labour, with 50 seats, is the largest party, but does not have an overall majority in the 129-seat parliament, so it is in coalition with the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives won 3 constituency seats, plus 15 others from the party lists. The biggest gains in 2003 were made by the Scottish Socialist Party and the Greens, both winning 6 seats. The electoral system has resulted in no single party winning an overall majority of the seats, thus producing coalition government.

In Wales, 40 seats are elected using FPTP while the remaining 20 use the top-up lists. In 1999, Labour failed to win an overall majority and formed a minority government, followed by a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. In 2003, Labour won 30 seats and was able to form a majority government in the Welsh Assembly for the first time.

The elections to the Greater London Assembly also use AMS. The elections for the Mayor of London (and other mayors) use the supplementary vote (SV), where voters are given two votes, as opposed to just the one given under majoritarian elections.

The advantages of AMS are that representation is, arguably, fairer. So women, ethnic minorities and people of various ages are probably better represented than they would be otherwise. This system is also thought to be easier for the voter to understand because it retains the FPTP system with which the electorate is already familiar.