{"id":157253,"date":"2021-05-10T16:06:02","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T16:06:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecanary.co\/?p=1427201"},"modified":"2021-05-10T16:06:02","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T16:06:02","slug":"the-uks-voting-system-is-already-broken-but-priti-patel-wants-to-make-it-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/10\/the-uks-voting-system-is-already-broken-but-priti-patel-wants-to-make-it-worse\/","title":{"rendered":"The UK\u2019s voting system is already broken but Priti Patel wants to make it worse"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a weekend of Conservative gains<\/a> in elections around the country, the left has suffered losses up and down the UK.<\/p>\n

But the results only confirm what electoral reform campaigners have known for a while: the UK must change its voting system.<\/p>\n

The UK is the only country, bar Belarus<\/a>, in Europe that uses First Past the Post (FPTP). The system has long been criticised<\/a> as failing to represent thousands of voters and allowing right-wing parties to dominate.<\/p>\n

That could change with a system using proportional representation. But unfortunately, home secretary Priti Patel seems intent on making things worse.<\/p>\n

Winner takes all<\/h5>\n

Under FPTP<\/a>, used for the UK’s Westminster and local elections, everyone votes for one candidate for their local ward or constituency. The winner is simply the candidate with the highest number of votes in that area.<\/p>\n

The problem is that parties can receive support from thousands of voters across the country, but if it is geographically spread out, they will come away with nothing. For example, in the 2019 general election the Greens received more than 865,000 votes.<\/p>\n

They took just one seat.<\/p>\n