Electoral Systems

• In 2015, UKIP won 12.6% of the popular vote but only 1 seat in the House of Commons. This was more than the Lib Dems who had 7.9% of the popular vote but had 8 seats in the Commons.
• In 2015, the SNP won 4.3% of the UK popular vote but won 56 out of 59 of Scotland's seats. Shows parties with concentrated support do significantly better than those without under FPTP.
• In 2019, Sinn Fein won Fermanagh and South Tyrone by just 57 votes. FPTP can produce seats with questionable mandates.
• In 2015, Alasdair McDonnell (SDLP) was elected to represent Belfast South with only 24.5% of the popular vote.
• In 2019, the Brexit Party chose not to contest 317 Tory-won seats. This allowed the Tories to target the Red Wall - formerly Labour seats in the Midlands and North. The Tories won many seats for the first time in that area.
• In 2019, 1 in 5 voters said they would use their ballot paper tactically instead of voting for their first choice.
• First-Past-the-Post means extremist parties do not win seats.
• In 2019, the Lib Dems had 11.5% of the vote but only won 1.7% of seats in Parliament.
• In 2019, the Conservatives won the general election with a vote share of 43.6% but 57% of seats available.
• Scotland has had one majority government in 2011, since then all governments have either been SNP minorities or coalitions between Labour and the SNP.
• In the 2021 Scottish parliament, the Conservatives won 21.9% of votes and 24% of seats under AMS.
• In the 2021 Scottish Parliament, the SNP won 47.7% of votes and 49.6% of seats under AMS.
• The safest seat in the UK is Liverpool Walton which Labour have consistently won, in 2019 they won 85% of the vote.
• First-Past-the-Post entrenches a two-party system as the Tories and Labour have traditionally had the two highest vote shares and every majority government has been Labour or Tory.
• Parties with dispersed support tend to perform poorly in FPTP as they come 2nd/3rd in Constituencies, but parties with concentrated support tend to do unproportionally well.
• Boris Johnson won the 2019 general election with a 56% majority, shows FPTP produces stable governments.
• In the 2021 Northern Ireland elections, Sinn Fein won 30% of seats and 29% of the vote share. This made them the largest party in Northern Ireland with only 27 out of 90 seats.
• Every government in Northern Ireland since devolution has been a coalition, with Sinn Fein and the DUP being the two main parties sharing power. This is good for meeting the Good Friday Agreement to keep peace.
• STV provides the greatest extension of voter choice and is the most proportional as it involves ranking candidates and multiple winners.
• In the 2017 Northern Ireland elections, the DUP won 28% of the vote share and 31% of seats. Under STV, this made them the largest party in Northern by only one seat.
• AMS is a more proportional system than FPTP, yet at times it can be unproportional. In the 2021 Senedd election, Labour won 39.9% of the vote share but half of the seats.
• In the 2021 Senedd election, Plaid Cymru won 22% of seats and 20% of the vote share.
• Parties with dispersed support can perform well under AMS. In the 2021 Scottish Parliament elections, the Conservatives only won 5 Constituency seats, but 31 seats overall with the regional vote.
• In the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, the Green Party won 8.1% of the regional vote which gave them a role in government as they had 8 seats but no constituency seats.
• AMS has split-ticket voting which means it reduces tactical voting as voters can vote for the MP that meets their local needs but not block a party out of government due to the regional vote.
• Devolution has allowed smaller parties to be successful in devolved elections; Sinn Fein and DUP are the two biggest parties in Northern Ireland, Plaid Cymru has a role in government in the Senedd and the SNP dominate the Scottish Parliament.
• FPTP keeps extremist parties out of government as in 2010, the BNP had 1.9% of the vote. If a proportional system was used, the BNP would have had around 12 seats but ended up with none.
• FPTP doesn't necessary produce strong mandates. In 2019, 229 MPs were voted in with less than 50% of their consituency voting for them. For example, Fermanagh and South Tyrone was won by a margin of 57 votes.
• In 2022, Sinn Fein won 29% of the popular vote and 30% of the seats and the Ulster Unionist Party won 11% of the vote and won 10% of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly.