Vote Change is sought

It was announced today that Mohammed Asghar is leaving Plaid Cymru and joining the Conservatives. Oscar (as he is known) took the fourth list seat for Plaid from the Conservatives.

Of course elected representatives can change their party whatever the voting system but where does this leave the people who used their party list vote to support Plaid now that the person they helped elect has defected.

STV would give a personal mandate to those who elected and would ensure the individual accountability of representatives.

Tony Benn's Letters to My Grandchildren (Hutchinson, £18.99) is as the title suggests a series of letters to Benn's grandchildren Nahal, Michael, James, William, Jonathan, Caroline, Emily, Daniel, Hannah and Sarah. 'Letter 17 explains the advantages of the single transferable vote system'.

Source: Guardian

The Open Rights Group will use STV to elect their directors.

The rules

New elections to the board of the BID company – called Coventry Best for Business – followed demands by protesters for an election by businesses that pay the levy.

"The procedures, using a system called single transferable vote, are designed to ensure the new board will be made up of a range of small, medium and large companies from different sectors and parts of the city"

It has been suggested that STV was chosen "to prevent a wholescale boardroom takeover by revolting firms."

This is good news for STV supporters because it shows not only that STV is gaining in popularity but also that it is seen as a good system to use when there are serious disputes and disagreements.

The BIDs core funding comes from Coventry City Council so this could serve as a model to follow for other organisations funded by local authorities and for other Business Improvement Districts established under Part 4 of the Local Government Act 2003.

Source: Coventry Telegraph

"This system creates results that are wholly unfair. It gives massive majorities to a party that has won only a third of the vote. It gives enormous power to parties to parachute favoured candidates into safe seats."

Source:
Reform is the way to make votes count (WalesOnline)

For those of you who twitter or perhaps would like to read what others have twittered. It might be worth visiting:

http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23ref2010

(hash tag: #ref2010)

to see what people have written so far about Referendum 2010.

The Speaker’s Conference has will be holding an public open meeting, details are as follows:

Time and Date: 1.10 pm on Monday 11 May 2009

Location: Banqueting Hall, Manchester Town Hall

interesting letter to the editor of North Shore News from Nancy Pow, North Vancouver.

STV opponents fan the fear of change

Here are two quotes which I found particularly helpful in this debate:

"It's very telling that opponents of STV have little positive to say about our current system. Instead they try to engender fear that STV, which is successfully used in other jurisdictions, wouldn't be good for us. It's interesting to note that in Ireland, voters have repeatedly voted to keep STV."

"With BC-STV, voters will have more choice; local representation will be more effective; and we will have a legislature that more accurately reflects the will of the voters."

"The bill... has the support of both Labour and the Conservatives, was debated and backed by the Holyrood parliament on 15 January. The vote means the first draft of the bill has now been approved..."

If passed, the bill will see STV elections being held every four years to fill some but not all positions on health boards. Local Councillors will also take seats on health boards meaning that a majority of each Health Board will have been elected by STV.

"Accountability, transparency and responsiveness must be at the very heart of public sector decision-making and direct elections to health boards are an obvious and logical way of achieving this.”

Nicola Sturgeon, Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing

Holyrood debates democratically elected health boards