Wales 2007; results thread

[Democratic Hawk]

All elections should be conducted under a FPTP-majority system like alternative vote or second-ballot run-off between the two highest polling candidates in any given single member constituency

There you have it! Systems, which 1) are fair in that the winning candidate ultimately secures a majority of all votes cast and which 2) retain accountability between the elected and their electorate

Dave

[Democratic Hawk]

Since I imagine the anti-Labour coalition will be highly unstable , the voters will get a chance to affirm or deny their support of Plaid-Tory-Lib Dem sooner than 2011.

And that can only be ultimately bad for Wales

Dave

[Democratic Hawk]

If there must me regional seats why can't they be allocated proportionally as per any particular parties share of the vote in any particular region?

That would be much more acceptable than the whole "top-up" thing

This system would mean, given all five regions have four additional seats, the following results [allowing for a minimum of 0.50 to secure additional representation]

South Wales Central:

Lab 33.99% - 1 seat [1.3596]
C 21.67% - 1 seat [0.8668]
PC 15.46% - 1 seat [0.6184]
LD 14.05% - 1 seat [0.562]

South Wales East:

Lab 35.78% - 2 seats [1.4312]
C 19.96% - 1 seat [0.7984]
PC 13.63% - 1 seat [0.5452]
LD 11.02% - 0 seats [0.4408]

South West Wales:

Lab 35.77% - 2 seats [1.4308]
PC 17.67% - 1 seat [0.7068]
C 16.06% - 1 seat [0.6424]
LD 12.40% - 0 seats [0.496]

Mid and West Wales:

PC 31.00% - 1 seat [1.24]
C 22.86% - 1 seat [0.9144]
Lab 18.43% - 1 seat [0.7372]
LD 13.27% - 1 seat [0.5308]

North Wales:

Lab 26.38% - 2 seats [1.0552]
PC 25.74% - 1 seat [1.0296]
C 25.59% - 1 seat [1.0236]
LD 7.78%  - 0 seats [0.312]

Total proportional seats: Lab 8; PC 5; Con 5; LD 2

Total FPTP seats: Lab 24; PC 7; Con 5; LD 3; Ind 1

Total Assembly seats: Lab 32; PC 12; Con 10; LD 5; Ind 1

Dave

[Democratic Hawk]

The point of having the top-up seats is to make it hard for any single party to win a majority, so as to create a political setup based on consensus and so on.

They should have gone with STV. Or the Aussie system. Anything but what we're stuck with now.

No, any single member FPTP-post majority system would have sufficed nicely

Dave