How alternative voting systems would have changed the shape of the political map of Britain

THE alternative vote system would have had little impact on the outcome of last week's general election, according to new research.

As the Liberal Democrats weighed up offers to move to AV from both Labour and the Conservatives, figures produced by the Electoral Reform Society showed they would have only gained 79 seats in the election, 22 more than the 57 achieved under first-past-the-post.

AV sees voters rank candidates in order of preference and if any candidate is unable to gain 50 per cent of the vote, the last placed candidate is eliminated and the second choices for this candidate redistributed. The process is repeated until one candidate gets an absolute majority.

The society also modelled the election under the single transferable vote in an attempt to push the case for the change it says is needed to "restore credibility back to representative government".

According to the society, had the STV system been in operation, the Lib Dems would have gained 162 seats, nearly three times as many as they polled last week..

The gains would have been made at the expense of the Conservatives and Labour, the research shows, with each party stripped of a significant number of MPs.

The Tories would be left with 246 instead of 307 seats, and Labour would have gained 207 seats rather than the 258 they won last week. In Scotland, the AV system, would have produced little change, with the Lib Dems picking up one seat at the expense of the SNP.

Had the STV system been in operation, however, the picture in Scotland would have been dramatically different, with the Tories and SNP gaining seats at the expense of Labour.

The Conservatives would go up from one to seven seats, and the SNP up from six to 13, if STV, which sees multiple MPs elected to each constituency, with voters ranking preferred candidates, had been used.

The Electoral Reform Society is campaigning for STV to be adopted and Dr Ken Ritchie, its chief executive said: "Scotland's political map is still dominated by Red. That's not how millions of voters who backed other parties see it, but only a shift to the Single Transferable Vote can deliver for multi-party politics in the country. As we've seen with local elections, with STV Labour's phoney Scottish dominance would be at an end, and Tory, Nats and Lib Dem voters would get the representation they asked for."

He went on: "Britain's new political map is simple. We have a blue south, a red north, and a few spots of yellow in between. It's not a map most voters would recognise as legitimate after another broken election.

Scottish Lib Dem leader Tavish Scott, said: "The Liberal Democrats want to change politics to make it fairer. All votes should count in every election."