Dear Editor,
The results of the recent local elections have provided a wealth of material for political pundits. East Anglia Bylines is to be commended for pointing out that the much-trumpeted swing from the Tories to Reform UK masks an underlying but significant advance by the “broad left” due to the successes of the Greens and the Liberal Democrats.
However, the results also show that our electoral system is no longer fit-for-purpose. In my area, the Huntingdonshire District, all 17 wards were contested by at least five candidates. You could be forgiven for thinking that voters were spoiled for choice but in practice about 2/3 of the electorate decided not to vote at all.
I don’t know the reason for that, and I have some sympathy with the view that the non-voters get what they deserve, especially if they would have preferred a different outcome once they got to know the result. On the other hand, five parties felt that the elections were so important that they put forward candidates in every ward and some Independents also stood even though they could not draw on support from party “machines”.
The results in this area showed that only one councillor achieved 50% of the votes cast in his ward. At the other end of the scale, one councillor was elected with only 23% of the votes cast.
When the turnout is taken into account, none of the successful candidates secured the support of as much as 20% of the electorate. In four cases, the level of support for the winning candidate was less than 10% – despite all the effort put into the election campaigns. What an indictment of our democracy!
It is to be hoped that the Labour and Conservative parties take note and recognise that First Past The Post is no longer working for them and that they follow the lead of the other three parties in this election which already support electoral reform.
Who knows, electoral reform might just convince the stay-at-home electors that their votes may actually count, and encourage them to turn out to vote.
Yours sincerely,
Malcolm Lynn
Huntingdonshire
