DURING a recent speech, Donald Dewar referred to the anomalies of the current first-past-the-post system in local government elections. Citing the example of Glasgow, he stated that the last election had only produced nine opposition councillors for 38% of votes cast. In fact the real situation was worse; only six councillors from parties other than Labour were elected. Since 1995 the SNP has won a by-election and acquired two defectors from Labour, making the current opposition total of nine.
It should not escape notice, however, that 62% of the popular vote was for Labour, some distance ahead of the 46% secured in the General Election of 1997, where incidentally the Tories secured 18% of the vote in Scotland but with no MPs to show for it.
The current New Labour fad for elected mayors could be even more extreme in its outcome. In a first-past-the-post race (and there can be no other) a field with five runners could theoretically see a winner with only 21% of the vote.
A few weeks ago you kindly printed my letter containing the far from original suggestion that a ''card-vote'' system could be used to supplement the present FPTP elections. This arrangement is an attempt to reconcile the representative role of councillors with the party preferences of the electorate.
To recap, councillors would be elected as at present to represent individual wards, but the total party vote would be subdivided by the number of successful candidates giving each an equal ''card-vote'' share. As a system it would be simpler than other PR systems such as additional member, single transferable vote, second-round elections, and so on.
An example of the extremes of these systems is the Catalonian Regional Parliament which is entirely composed of MPs elected from party lists with no constituency responsibilities at all.
The only shortcoming of a card-vote system is that a numerically small opposition may be overstretched in their ability to scrutinise an administration's work. This could be overcome by allowing them to cross-examine committee conveners regularly on a one-to-one basis, similar to Parliamentary Select Committees.
The strength of a card-vote system is that to form an administration a party would have to achieve 51% of the popular vote and not just 51% of the seats. Anything less would require deals between parties, which may or may not be seen as an advantage.
A technical solution to a political problem is inevitably a compromise, and my suggestion cannot be described as anything else, but it is surely worthy of consideration.
Councillor Craig Roberton,
Glasgow City Council,
George Square, Glasgow.
June 1.
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