Why we should vote YES

Sir, The arguments from both sides of the AV debate have not been compelling so far and your correspondent last week, Cllr Tony Mannion adds little of value.

The YES campaign has been concentrating on the claim that AV will somehow make MPs work harder to achieve our vote.

This ignores the fact that most work fairly hard to get it already. It is what they do once they have it which is upsetting. It a shame that they present such a dubious argument because there is a persuasive reason to vote for AV in that it can produce representatives who have a more positive mandate from the electorate then the current system.

The NO campaign either takes the condescending tack that the electorate are too simple to understand what is, in fact, a very straight forward system or they take the line that Cllr Mannion does of claiming that under AV some people get more votes than others.

Cllr Mannion’s argument ignores the basic fact that everyone’s vote is re-counted in the second and subsequent rounds of AV whether their first choice is eliminated or not and also the reality that MPs are elected now with votes that would be the second or lower choice of the elector but they simply have not been issued with the opportunity to express their real preference.

In a predominantly two party system, voting for anyone other than the representative of the main party you prefer (or dislike the least) risks letting the other in and most people don’t want to take that gamble on the chance that significant numbers of others will also do so.

Consequently, when someone is elected under the system we have no idea whether they are the real choice of the people or not and they have no real mandate. Under AV everyone will be able to safely vote for their real preference and anyone elected will have had a preference expressed for them by the majority of people expressing one.

We are fortunate in being offered the chance of AV because it is not in the real interest of many of those in power and only cooked up as a compromise to con the Liberal-Democrats into becoming Tory mouthpieces in the coalition in the belief that it would be subsequently rejected.

It is however the fairest way of electing constituency MPs and I would urge your readership to vote YES on May 5.

John Dalton, Dinnington (full address supplied).