Claire Perry launches local No2AV campaign

Claire Perry, MP for the Devizes constituency today helped launch the local No2AV campaign in Marlborough. With the country set to go the polls on 5th May, Claire has set out a clear message to her constituents to vote against the introduction of the Alternative Voting system in favour of the present first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.

Following the launch of the campaign, Claire said:

"AV is an unfair, untenable and unpredictable voting alternative to our present system that we have used for hundreds of years. AV treats someone's fifth or sixth choice as having the same importance as someone else's first preference which would see, in the words of Winston Churchill, the "most worthless votes given for the most worthless candidates". Only three countries in the world use AV and it is even discredited by the man responsible for calling the referendum, Nick Clegg, who called it "a miserable little compromise".

"AV would cost an additional £250 million to councils who are already facing a tough economic climate and more money would have to be spent just to explain the voting system to prevent a fall in turn-out at elections. The FPTP system is as effective as it is simple and the idea of One Person, One Vote is the staple of most democracies. I will be voting "No" on May 5th and it is my goal to persuade my constituents to follow suit."

Notes:

• As per the Coalition Agreement, a referendum on the introduction of AV will be held on 5th May 2011 which, in the event of a positive result in the referendum, would be passed into law before the next general election.
• Under AV, the voters rank candidates in order of preference and anyone getting more than 50 per cent in the first round is elected. If that doesn't happen, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their second choices are allocated to the remaining candidates. If no candidate at the second stage has a majority of votes, the next lowest candidate is eliminated and their votes are redistributed. This process keeps on occurring until a winner emerges.
• FPTP is used by 2.4 billion people in 50 countries around the world. Fiji, Australia and Papua New Guinea are the only countries who use AV. In Australia six out of ten people want to go back to FPTP and Fiji have made plans to scrap the system.
• The independent commission chaired by the senior Liberal Democrat Roy Jenkins in 1998 concluded that AV was 'even less proportional' than our existing system, and warned that it was 'disturbingly unpredictable'.
• AV does not necessarily mean that MPs would need 50 per cent of the vote to be elected. According to Rallings and Thrasher, Professors from the University of Plymouth, "more than 4 out of every 10 MPs would still be elected with the endorsement of less than 50 per cent of the voters in their constituency". (Source: http://bit.ly/hcSfir)
• In Australia the election preceding the use of AV produced a turnout of 78%. In the first election under AV, this fell to 72%, and then fell further to 59% in the second AV election. As a result of this fall, Australia made voting compulsory.

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