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Referendum on the voting system for UK parliamentary elections
Published Friday 25th March 11
Wellingborough Council will publish the notice of referendum this week.
The referendum, which will be held on 5 May, is to decide on the question:
At present, the UK uses the 'first past the post' system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the 'alternative vote' system be used instead?
At the moment, people vote for just one candidate and the candidate with the most votes wins. They don't need to get a minimum number of votes, they only need more than any other candidate - this is known as 'first past the post'. With the 'alternative vote' (AV) system, people rank the candidates in order of preference, putting 1 next to their first choice, 2 next to their second choice and so on. All the number 1 votes for each candidate are then counted, and if a candidate receives more than half of the number 1 votes cast, they win. If no candidate gets more than half of the number 1 votes there is another round of counting. At this count, the candidate with the fewest number 1 votes is removed from the election, and their ballot papers are looked at again. If one of these papers shows a number 2 vote for another candidate, it is added to that candidate's total. This process continues - with candidates being removed and the ballots papers for that candidate being moved to a candidate that ranks the next highest on the paper - until one candidate has more than half of the number of remaining votes and is declared the winner.
People will be asked to put a cross in the 'yes' or 'no' box on the ballot paper. If more people vote 'yes' than 'no', the alternative vote system will be used for future elections to the House of Commons. If more people 'no' than 'yes', the first past the post system will continue to be used.
All electors who are entitled to vote at parliamentary elections can vote at the referendum. This means that citizens of the European Union, who are not also British or Commonwealth citizens, are not entitled to vote at the referendum. The last date to register to vote is 14 April.
Applications, amendments or cancellations of postal votes much reach the Electoral Registration Officer at Swanspool House, Doddington Road, Wellingborough NN8 1BP by 5pm on Thursday 14 April. Applications to vote by proxy must reach the Electoral Registration Officer by 5pm on 21 April.