FPTP

• First pay the post is a plurality system
• Works in a single member constituency
• Only one vote majority is needed, unlike an absolute majority which would require 50% of the vote
• In 2015 only 319 of 650 MPs won an absolute majority (more than 50%) of votes in their constituency
• main strengths:

  • easy + simple to understand, voters only have to make a single cross on a ballot
  • decisive - usually results in one clear party winning e.g. 56% voted conservative in 2019
• main weaknesses:

  • regularly produces five elected on a minority of the popular vote e.g. conservatives won in 2017 with 48.9%
  • votes are of unequal value
  • prevalence of safe seats means many voters have little hope of seeing their favoured candidate win
• results are declared quickly e.g. on friday 13th december 2019 , considerably les than 24 hours after the polls had closed all of the UK’s constituencies had declared their results
• clear accountability and effective relationships between MPs e.g. in 2019 a nimber of high profile casualties, Jo Swindon replaced by the SNP’s candidate
• decisive stable govs e.g. in 2019 Johnson could legitimately claim he led a single party “people’s gov”
• fundamentally undemocratic e.g. many candidates in 2019 won their seats with significantly less than 50% of the vote
• distorts voting values e.g. large numbers of wasted votes, Lib Dem’s recived a seat for every 336,038 votes they secured, whereas the Tories revived a seat for every 38,264 votes
• Does not create a representative assembly
• Results in safe seats and uncompetitive elections