Vote for change

Unlike Frank Donald (Letters, 4 February), I am not at all surprised that your list of "polling systems across the world" omitted "top-two run-off". This is one of the worst voting systems around. For evidence, just take a look at the French presidential election of 2002, when the "top-two" choice was between Jacques Chirac and Jean-Marie Le Pen.

The majority of French voters would almost certainly have preferred a candidate from the left, but the voting system denied them that choice. At least, the alternative vote would do better than that.

But in terms of reforming the Westminster parliament, top-two run-off has nothing to offer. What we need is a parliament properly representative of the voters and a voting system that would give us real choice among candidates of the same party as well as between candidates of different parties. Only then will our MPs become real representatives and accountable to their local constituents.

JAMES GILMOUR

East Parkside

Edinburgh