A poll published today suggests 45 per cent of voters support adopting the Alternative Vote system for Westminster elections.
The survey conducted by YouGov for the Institute of Public Policy Research (ippr) less than four weeks before the May 5 referendum shows greater support for ditching first past the post than any previous poll.
According to the survey 33 per cent of those asked supported would vote 'No', 17 per cent did not know how they would vote and 6 per cent would not say.
The question was asked after the participants took part in a 'mock AV ballot'.
According to ippr the figures show a significant jump in support for the Yes campaign as polling day approaches.
The think-tank said that the average of the 12 major polls since the turn of the year has placed 'Yes' on 36 per cent and 'No' on 31 per cent.
Nick Pearce, ippr director, said the ballot showed that when people engaged with AV and were given a chance to try out the system of voting preferences, their support for change grew.
"It also shows that people can readily understand how AV works and don’t find it too complex," he said.
"When asked to name second preferences, the electorate’s new pluralism emerges quite clearly, with strong support for the Greens and UKIP, as well as the Liberal Democrats.
"But voters have mixed views about whether AV is a more democratic electoral system.
"With three weeks to go before the referendum, both the Yes and No campaigns need to engage seriously with the electorate so that voters are well informed about the options when they make their choice on May 5th."
A spokesman for the 'No' campaign said the numbers were untrustworthy as ippr was a "'Yes' supporting think-tank" and cautioned the poll should be treated "with immense suspicion".
Article Comments
I find it ironic that the current system is called the 'first past the post'...when in fact there is no post at all.
Someone could win with only 10% of the vote if there were enough other candidates all polling less. The AV system does define a post being 50%, maybe it should claim back the first past the post title, once it has been successfully been voted in.
The last elections were very entertaining (thanks to all parties for putting on a good spectacle). There is a chance that the AV system might win for this very reason - the whole Conservative/ Lib Dem alliance thing makes politics much more colourful. I can imagine that a lot of people were happy with the result last May, which was effective as a protest against all political parties by not giving any single party the majority of votes. Long live democracy!
Jon - Swindon
15th Apr 2011 at 1:19 pm
Tern,
I understand AV perfectly well, and in my view it is flawed. I do not believe it is any sort of improvement, but rather, is far worse than the current system and will be bad for politics in this country.
E.g. you don't really get 50% support - that's acheived through mathematical trickery (who would win if the top candidate's 2nd choice votes were redistributed for example? why do only the 2nd/3rd preferences of candidates who come last get redistributed? That's not fairer is it?). And I would say politiciains attempting to appeal to more of the electorate (working harder for their vote, etc) actually means a lot of meaningless promises, that can easily be broken in a coalition government when manifestos count for nothing.
You saying 'it wins when it is properly understood' is not a fact; it's your opinion.
Not understanding it and therefore not being in favour of it does not make a person a bigot either. Not understanding how it works is a perfectly legitimate reason to mistrust a voting system in fact (although I agree it's simple enough).
Thinking someone is a bigot because they don't agree with you (for whatever reason), however, is bigoted.
David
14th Apr 2011 at 5:46 pm
AV wins when it is properly understood. The biggest danger of the referendum getting stolen, has lain in the Noes appealing to the closed mind of mobs throughout history, who have found it easy to say 'I don't understand' in order to refuse to think about anything new. 'I don't understand' gets said to many very easily understandable things, and generally means the person does not want to understand or think. Anyone who is genuinely listening but not understanding will ask questions about the details in order to find understanding - all through life that is how you tell them apart from all the 'I don't understand' bigots.
A hopeful sign here that the much let down public are listening and the message is clicking. AV is simple to understand, after all.
Tern
14th Apr 2011 at 4:59 pm
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