Outcomes of FPTP

• Outcomes of first-past-the-post

  • Many seats are safe seats
  • Only a minority of seats are marginal seats
  • The winning party often wins enough seats to govern on its own with a clear mandate
  • It discriminates in favour of parties whose vote is highly concentrated in one area
  • It discriminates against parties whose vote is thinly spread throughout the country
  • Voters are more likely to engage in tactical voting
  • FPTP is therefore associated with a two-party system
• Safe seat

  A constituency where one party is so dominant that it is almost unthinkable that it will not win the seat at every election
• Marginal seat


  A constituency where more than one party has a realistic chance of election and the outcome of the election is likely to be close
• Winner bonus- rewards those parties whose votes are highly concentrated
• Tactical voting- when voters who might have not been their perferred choice is voted to keep the candidate they least like from winning