Reforming an electoral system can be a hot potato. The behaviour of the electorate is never easy to predict, and when a newly-elected government has done well through the existing system - as in the United Kingdom today - the temptation grows to keep it intact.
Electoral reform has, however, been on the political agenda in the United Kingdom for several years and especially since May 1st, the date of the last British general election. A referendum has been promised on the issue regarding general elections. With regard to European Parliament elections, the government has already tabled proposals to introduce a new electoral system in time for the next European elections, due in June 1999.
EP elections in the UK: electoral reform at last on the way
The British government has proposed a system based on proportional representation for the next elections to the European Parliament, due in 1999. Currently, Britain is the only member of the European Union to use the first-past-the-post system in single-member constituencies for elections to the European Parliament. All the others use a form of proportional representation. Furthermore, a system of PR, the single transferable vote, is used for the three seats in Northern Ireland to allow for the representation of the minority. The United Kingdom is thus the only member state in the EU to have two different systems of election to the European Parliament.
The proposed changes introduced under the European Parliamentary Elections Bill would mean a change from the current system, based on constituencies, to a proportional list system, based on larger multimember regions for England, Scotland and Wales. Early introduction of the proposals, within eight months of the new government taking office, is designed to give the parties time to re-adjust their structures to cater for the new system.
The government has proposed introducing a "closed list system". It would mean that political party lists would appear on the ballot paper together with the names of the parties' candidates. An independent candidate will appear under his/her name. Voters would be invited to mark one cross either for a party list or an independent candidate. Once votes were counted, seats would be allocated according to the proportion of the vote obtained for each party. Parties would have a much greater say over which candidates went to Strasbourg and would therefore be in a better position to exercise control.
At the last European Parliament elections in 1994, the electorate voted for candidates standing in separate constituencies, as in general elections - although they could not split their vote between party and candidate. Such constituencies will now be abolished.
Standing for election will become more expensive. Both political parties and independent candidates will be obliged to pay a £5,000 deposit, up from £1,000 at the last election. In the event of the death or resignation of an elected MEP, a by-election would only be held if there was no candidate left on the party list, or if in the seat concerned, the voters had elected an independent candidate. In other words, the electorate would have already decided a replacement.
This is not the first time that electoral reform for the European Parliament has been proposed in Britain. Twenty years ago, the last Labour government proposed in the "European Assembly Elections Bill" a choice between the current systems and a PR system which would have introduced regional lists. This was rejected by the House of Commons.
Supporters of reform argue that the new proposals will result in a fairer distribution of the votes among parties and encourage the electorate to take a greater interest in elections to the European Parliament. In 1994, for example, the turnout was just 36 per cent in England, much lower than that of other Member States.
Strengths and weaknesses
Proportional Representation is intended to ensure that parties are represented according to their share of the vote. Critics of PR argue that the issue is not representation of minorities, but providing strong accountable government, and that PR can only weaken the chances of achieving this. In European Parliamentary elections, however, obtaining a majority to form a government is not the objective. Representation is by far the more important issue, given the need to bring the electorate of Europe closer to EU decision-making procedures.
The current British electoral system for the European Parliament, where the parties' objective is to come first in as many constituencies as possible, has the advantage of maintaining a link between the voter and the MEP. However, the current government has argued that given the size of the constituencies, this is not as important as for elections to Westminster. Furthermore, the current system, which has been used for the four European Parliament elections since 1979, has produced several examples of disproportionate representation, as the table shows:
"Wasted" votes are another weakness of the current electoral system. Unlike PR, where all votes have equal value, the first-past-the-post system can discourage voters in certain areas where their preferred candidate has no chance of winning. Voters in "key marginals" are therefore more valuable, while voters may not bother to vote where a safe seat is known to exist.
One final problem with the present UK first-past-the-post system is that in the past, parties have been a little reluctant to present women, representatives from ethnic minorities or indeed anyone who might be regarded as "unsuitable" in a safe seat. The result has been the under representation of these groups in the European Parliament. Traditionalists have always stressed that introducing such candidates can be too risky. But under the new system, the electorate will be voting for party lists not individual candidates, unless an independent is standing. The issue will however be important when the parties come to draw up their lists.
The UK proposal
Under the UK government proposals, the current single constituency MEP will be abolished and the UK will be divided into regions. Scotland and Wales will each be single regions and continue to return eight and five MEPs respectively. England will be divided into nine regions using the same boundaries currently employed by the Government Offices for Regions, the exception being the unification of Merseyside and North West into a single region.
Ten of the Member States have the whole country as a single constituency for MEP elections, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, like the UK, have divided their national territory into a number of constituencies. Finland has a mixed system.