MORE than half of the electorate in Scotland is being ignored by a “morally and politically bankrupt” voting system, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has said.
Analysis of the last UK General Election by the ERS found 54% of Scottish voters ended up without their preferred local candidate.
Describing the election results as “grossly disproportionate”, the findings reveal the Scottish Conservative vote share of 25% yielded just six seats (10%), and more than 90% of Scottish Labour votes went unrepresented.
In Scotland, less than a third (31.5%) of the 2.8 million votes proved “decisive” under the first past the post voting system, with 1.9m votes either being surplus or cast for a losing candidate.
The SNP’s performance in the December election produced one of the most disproportionate results in the UK, according to the ERS, with the party winning 81% of Scottish seats having secured 45% of the votes.
They won 47 seats – an increase of 22 percentage points on 2017, when they won 35 seats – after their number of votes rose by eight percentage points.
The ERS is calling for the single transferable vote system, which is already used for Scottish council elections, to be used in UK-wide ballots.
Dr Jess Garland, director of policy and research at ERS, said: “Voters in Scotland are used to voting with a proportional system for non-Westminster elections but are being cheated out of fair representation in the House of Commons. The huge scale of unrepresented votes, in Scotland and across the UK, represents a democratic crisis that has to be tackled.
“It’s time to ensure seats match how people want to vote.
“Westminster’s outdated, bankrupt electoral system is denying people choice and a real voice.”
Across the UK, more than half (51%) of Labour voters saw their votes go to non-elected candidates, compared to just under a quarter (24%) of Conservative voters.
Of the 32m votes cast, only 9.4m votes – 29% of the total – were “decisive” in securing a candidate’s election, the report concluded.
Garland added: “It is no wonder trust in politics is at rock bottom – the vast majority of people’s votes are being systematically ignored by a voting system that is morally and politically bankrupt.
“Westminster cannot go on like this – all parties must get behind reform of this broken system at long last.
“It’s time Westminster caught up with the rest of the UK and ensured seats in Parliament reflect how people actually want to vote – no more ‘holding your nose’ tactical votes, ignored votes and warped results.”
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