Referendum on the voting system for parliamentary elections

A referendum on whether the UK should elect MPs to Parliament using the 'alternative vote' (AV) system instead of the current 'first past the post' system took place on Thursday 5 May 2011 along with local government elections.

Results are available here: www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/referendumresults

What is Alternative Vote?

• Under the Alternative Vote (AV) system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
• Instead of marking the ballot paper with an ‘x’ for one candidate (the current system) the voter can rank all the candidates in order of preference using 1,2,3,4…
• If a candidate receives a majority of first preference votes then they are elected.
• If no candidate gains a majority of first preferences then the second preference votes of the candidate who finished last on the first count are redistributed.
• The process is repeated until someone gets over 50%.
• Representatives are still elected for single-member constituencies.

Further information can also be found at the Electoral Commission website www.electoralcommission.org.uk.