A Labour MP has criticised the voting system which allowed two BNP candidates to be elected as MEPs.
Denis MacShane (Lab, Rotherham) condemned the success of the BNP and called for all-postal voting to be implemented.
In the 2004 election in the Yorkshire region, he said, the BNP had received a smaller proportion of the votes in the all-postal ballot where "nearly twice as many people voted".
MacShane suggested the use of all-postal ballots is "the best way to defeat the fascists".
Andrew Mackay (Conservative, Bracknell) also expressed his concern about the system used.
"A system that allows an extremist part to get elected with a small number of votes is not a system we should encourage," he said.
Gary Streeter (Con, Devon South West), responding on behalf of the Speaker's committee on the Electoral Commission, said it was in a matter for Parliament to decide on the electoral systems in place.
David Heath (Lib Dem, Somerton and Frome) said the public votes mainly on two issues - whether the institution matters to them and whether they believe their vote matters.
Heath suggested: "Aren't those the sort of issues we ought to be considering to make sure our electoral system is fit for purpose?"
Streeter responded that a number of issues have an impact turnout, and noted the figure for the recent elections had been 34 per cent against 38.5 per cent in 2004.
And he also confirmed that a review of the recent elections will be undertaken.
Linda Riordan (Lab, Halifax) recommended the introduction of early voting to address "voter apathy and electoral disengagement".
She noted the use of early voting in the US presidential elections, where voters had "flocked to the polls over a two week period".
"Clearly one day's access to the polls is not enough in today's society," Riordan argued.
In response, Streeter said the Electoral Commission had not opposed moving to weekend voting, but there was a lack of "compelling evidence" of its effectiveness.
He added there had been a number of reasons for low turnout at elections, many relating to political parties and the conduct of MPs.
Article Comments
When will these politicians realise, there is nothing wrong with the voting system. They are unwilling to admit that the BNP were elected by a popular vote. The reason for this is that politicians of main-stream parties either fail or refuse to listen to the concerns of ordinary electors on many of the policy areas where the BNP would now claim to hold sway over opinion. It's the politicians who have allowed the BNP to gain a popular foothold and it horrifies me that they now propose to tinker with the electoral process to exclude a swathe of public opinion - just because they don't like it.Nobody has ever blamed the voting system in pre-war Germany for the rise of Hitler. Everyone accepts that it was political mis-management by the existing politicians that led to economic bancruptcy and widespread poverty which fueled Hitler's rise to power - anything sound familiar?
23rd Jun 2009 at 10:05 am by Phil Johnson
