THE STV

What are its advantages and disadvantages?

AIMS OF PRESENTATION

This presentation looks at •How the Single Transferable (STV) voting system works in Scotland•Advantages of STV•Criticisms of STV

STV: HOW IT WORKS

Voting in STV elections is easy.

Voters rank the candidates 1,2,3 etc depending on how many are on the ballot paper.

The voter doesn’t have to use all his/her preferences and can just give a first preference.

LARGER, MULTI-MEMBER CONSTITUENCIES

In STV, constituencies (or in this case, council wards) are larger and, depending on the population, have several candidates elected.

EXAMPLE: INVERKEITHING AND DALGETY BAY, FIFE COUNCIL

SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY

The Scottish National Party stood two candidates.

They asked you to vote twice, putting a 1 and a 2 next to their candidates, Helen Todd and Alice McGarry.

SCOTTISH LABOUR PARTY

The Scottish Labour Party stood two candidates.

They asked you to vote twice, putting a 1 and a 2 next to their candidates, Gavin Yates and Lesley Laird.

SCOTTISH CONSERVATIVE PARTY

The Scottish Conservatives stood just the one candidate.

They asked you to vote just the once, putting a 1 next to their candidate, Dave Dempsey.

THE RESULT?

STV. WHY?

In 2003, in order to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats, Labour had to concede to the Liberal Democrats' demands for the STV to be introduced to local council elections.

STV was adopted for Scottish local elections as part of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act, passed in June 2004.

Had Labour won an overall majority in the 2003 Scottish Parliament elections, STV would not have been brought in.

Labour is not dead, far from it. But, the party has to work a lot harder to win elections than it did under FPTP. Maybe not a bad thing.

ADVANTAGE: PROPORTIONAL RESULTS

STV is supposed to deliver proportional results. It does.

In the 2007 and 2012 Scottish local council elections, parties won council seats much more in proportion to the percentage of the vote they received.

ADVANTAGE: STV SHOULD INCREASE TURNOUT?

UK General Election2010FPTP

Scottish local councils 2012STV

Scottish local councils2007STV

Scottish Parliament2011AMS

European Parliament2009D’Hondt Party List

VoterTurnout

65.1% 40% (est)

52.1% 50.4% 34%STV is supposed to increase turnout. This is because there are no safe seats and no “wasted” votes.

But voters haven’t responded to STV. Or maybe they just don’t respond to local government elections. Turnouts for the two STV local elections have been low. The Scottish Government doesn’t appear to be in any hurry to publish turnout figures for 2012!

It hasn’t. The type of voting system, on its own, would not appear to be the decisive factor in encouraging voters to turn out and vote.

UK voters do, though, appear to see the General Election as the most important, despite its much criticised First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system.

ADVANTAGE: STV SHOULD END ONE PARTY POLITICS? It did.

The majority of councils in Scotland - 23 - are "hung" with no one party in overall control.

The Labour/SNP coalition in Edinburgh is perhaps the most interesting.

At a national level, the parties are avowed enemies.

But if you took the independence issue away, and local councils can’t make Scotland independent, there is often little to separate SNP and Labour councillors.

Most are left of centre social democrats.

Party Number of Councillors

Scottish Labour 20

SNP 18

Scottish Conservatives

11

Scottish Greens 6

Scottish Liberal Democrats

3

City of Edinburgh Council 2012

MULTI-PARTY LOCAL GOVERNMENT

In 2012, the SNP once again became Scotland’s largest party in local government.

But the STV helped to deliver multi-party politics in most of the country.

Parties have to co-operate with each other rather than indulge in “yah-boo” politics.

Party Number of Councillors

SNP 424

Scottish Labour 394

Independents 201

Scottish Conservatives

115

Scottish Liberal Democrats

71

Scottish Greens 14

Scottish Socialists

1

2012 council election results

ADVANTAGE: STV SHOULD INCREASE EMPOWER VOTERS

This is a real advantage as under STV, voters can choose between candidates of the same political party.

All elected councillors have to work with their constituents so they will be elected next time round. They cannot rely on being elected on “the party ticket”

So, STV has ended the days when local councillors had a “shoo-in” safe seat.

COALITIONS

STV doesn’t have to result in coalition government. Sometimes it does e.g. East Renfrewshire, sometimes it doesn’t e.g. Glasgow.

But it is more likely too than other voting systems.

Are coalitions bad because ultimately no-one can vote for a coalition.

Or do they lead to grown up decision making?