Why stv in northern ireland

Supporters of FPTP argue that coalition governments are not as stable or effective as single party governments. This is because coalition governments are often formed by parties with opposing political principles. This leads to difficulties in agreeing decisions.

Parties may withdraw from government and cause it to collapse. STV was introduced to provide better representation for those who supported other parties.

In Assembly elections, voters can show support for a number of parties and constituents have a choice of MLAs and parties to approach for assistance. A PR election system, such as STV, ensures that different sections of the community have their views represented in the devolved institutions.

It is important that as many people as possible feel represented and included. Since the election, parties with enough seats are entitled to opposition rights if they decide to opt out of the Executive Committee.

Northern Ireland has a unique model of coalition government. Most coalitions are formed when parties agree to work together. The make-up of the coalition reflects the results of the election, the mandate given to parties by the voters. It is a system designed to guarantee power-sharing between representatives from different sections of the community. What issues would be important to you when deciding how to vote? Do you think your views are represented well by the MLAs in your constituency?

Some in the UUP and SDLP might point out that the first-past-the-post or plurality system used in UK parliamentary elections would give incentives for moderate parties to attract support from both communities.

They might point to the success of Dr Joe Hendron in Westminster elections 10 years ago. Dr Hendron managed to unseat Mr Gerry Adams by attracting unionist support. However, the difficulty with the plurality system is that in many constituencies voters must be aware of who is likely to win in order to vote in this way. This means that voters must act strategically, perhaps making opinion polls self-fulfilling prophecies. In constituencies where there are high rates of segregation, attracting support from the other side of the divide may mean losing support to extremists within one's own community.

This would increase the potential for a return to unionist domination. What system would work? There is nothing wrong with the present system.

STV allows voters to give their first vote to their preferred candidate without risking wasting it on a no-hoper. The system of transferring preferences also means it might pay to attract support from both sides of the divide. The problem with the present system is what political scientists call the district magnitude DM.

This is the number of seats in each constituency. Where it is high, proportionality is high. With high proportionality, in divided societies we often see small extremist parties.

In Israel the electoral system is extremely proportional - the country is a single constituency with seats - and small parties have acted to restrict governments' ability to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians.

Northern Ireland's DM of six is large enough to allow small parties within a constituency to work to earn a seat on the basis of their first-preference support. The Alternative Vote AV system would maintain the attractive aspects of PR-STV, but work in favour of moderate candidates who can attract support from both communities, making parliamentary democracy more stable. Nor is it a strange new system requiring costly reports from expert consultants. It's already used in the Republic.

AV is used for by-elections and the presidential election. This number is calculated according to the number of seats and votes cast and is called a quota. The first preference votes for each candidate are added up and any candidate who has achieved this quota is elected. Votes that would have gone to the winner instead go to the second preference listed on those ballot papers. If candidates do not meet the quota, the candidate with the fewest first preference votes is eliminated and the second preference votes are transferred to other candidates.

These processes are repeated until all the seats are filled.