ELECTORAL reform has been thrust back into the spotlight following the results of the general election, with tens of thousands calling for an overhaul of the voting system.
Ukip won almost four million votes, coming second in at least 90 seats, while the Greens won more than one million across the UK. Both parties ended up with one MP each, compared to the SNP which won 56 seats with just under 1.5 million votes.
Meanwhile, Labour and the Tories won almost 87 per cent of the seats in the House of Commons between them, despite taking around two-thirds of the total number of votes cast.
Within hours of the results emerging, 40,000 people had signed a petition launched by the Electoral Reform Society advocating a more proportional system to elect MPs.
Josiah Mortimer, spokesman for the Electoral Reform Society, said: "Something has changed this time, this is one of the most disproportionate election results in British history. The case for reform is just getting stronger and stronger.
"People are really feeling that the current system is broken and has to change and they're saying that across the political spectrum. It can't be ignored any longer.
"A lot of people are realising politics have changed since the Alternative Vote referendum. We saw it in the leaders' debate, when there were seven party leaders. You just wouldn't have got that in 2011. We now have a multi-party politics, and an outdated two party voting system."
The SNP, despite doing well out of the traditional first past the post system, favours electoral reform.
After resigning as Ukip leader after failing in his bid for a Commons seat, Nigel Farage said: "What we have got to do is turn it into a mass membership organisation that doesn't just want to change our relationship with Europe and control immigration, but get positive electoral reform.
"There'll be lots and lots of Ukip voters out there very angry that they are not going to be represented and I think our system is bust. However, we have got a Conservative majority government, by the looks of it, which means not terribly much is going to change."
The Greens joined the call in an unlikely alliance.
Caroline Lucas held on to the Green Party's one seat in Parliament, winning 22,871 votes in Brighton Pavilion. She said: "I think it's a real travesty over a million people voted Green up and down the country and yet that's been translated into just one seat.
"I'm feeling fairly confident that as a result of what we've seen tonight there will be a real movement outside of Parliament, a real anger for people wanting voting reform."
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