First Past The Post Flashcards
What is FPTP
Most significant electoral system in the uk used for general elections.
And house of commons elections.
How does a candidate win
Plurality of votes to win: that is, one more vote than the second place candidate. No requirement to obtain a majority of the votes cast. In contests involving three or more candidates the winner may fall well short of an overall majority
Close MP-constituency relationship:
One representative is elected for each constituency and this usually means there will be a strong constituency-MP relationship.
One party strong government:
Usually one party wins the election which means the winning party gets five years to put its plans (given in its manifesto) into action. In 2019 it was the Conservative Party who won the General Election.
Simplicity
The FPTP system is easily understood and familiar. Voters were given the chance a few years ago to get rid of FPTP for UK parliament elections but they choose to keep it.
Minority of the vote:
Sometimes an MP can be elected on a vote as low as only 35%, a minority, of the vote. The winning party is also usually elected by less than 50% of the voters. This happened in 2019 as the Conservatives only won 43.6% of the vote.
Parties do not always gain fair representation
In 2015, UKIP polled 12.6% of the vote but returned only 1 MP. In 2019, Labour received 18% of the vote in Scotland but only returned 1 MP.
Tactical voting
: It is argued that FPTP encourages tactical voting (or people not bothering to vote) as they think their vote will have little chance of helping elect their candidate
Safe seats
in a constituency or seat that usually returns a Conservative MP (sometimes called a ‘safe’ seat), there is little point in a voter choosing Labour as they are unlikely to have their candidate elected. Two-thirds of constituencies in the UK are described as safe seats.
