Northern Ireland’s local elections show the benefit of the Single Transferable Vote On the 18th of May, Northern Ireland’s local elections showcased the continued successful use of the Single Transferable Vote (STV). This inclusive and proportional method stands in stark contrast to the disproportionate results witnessed in... Posted 26 May 2023
Why do so many parties use transferable voting for their leadership elections? The 27th of March sees the announcement of the results of the SNP leadership election. As we wrote a few weeks ago, the SNP uses the Alternative Vote to elect their leader – and they’re... Posted 24 Mar 2023
How many countries around the world use proportional representation? Proportional representation is the most popular form of democracy for countries in the world today. Proportional Representation isn’t one electoral system though, it’s the simple idea that the strength of each faction in parliament should... Posted 20 Mar 2023
What elections should the next government reform? Last week we published a blog on UK electoral reforms since 1997 and highlighted that whilst at Westminster the fight for electoral reform continues, the progress of reform across the UK increased and voters are... Posted 08 Mar 2023
What Electoral reforms have there been since 1997? While the need for reforming Westminster’s First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system is getting clearer every day, outside Westminster the process of reform has been slowly, but surely, going in the right direction. While... Posted 02 Mar 2023
What are the alternatives to First Past the Post? Westminster’s First Past the Post system means we don’t get a parliament that fully represents the voting public. Millions of people can support one party and get a single MP, while a few hundred thousand... Posted 19 Jan 2023
The top 5 most-read ERS articles from 2022 Every year we have a look through the stats to see which of our articles were the most popular with readers in the year coming to a close. So if you missed them the first... Posted 15 Dec 2022
The 2022 Welsh Local Elections and the case for STV On May 5th 2022 voters went to the polls in Wales to elect councillors for all 22 local authorities. These were not the only elections held that day; Northern Ireland held an Assembly election and... Posted 15 Nov 2022
A wave of cities across the United States switch to fair voting systems This week’s big electoral story is America’s midterm elections and the failure of the predicted ‘Red Wave’ to materialise. However, an underreported story has been the high number of cities that accepted proposals to introduce... Posted 11 Nov 2022
Why does the Northern Ireland Assembly keep collapsing? In 1998, the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement, was reached by multi-party consensus to bring an end to the violence in Northern Ireland and establish the current political system. Unlike the... Posted 04 Nov 2022