A Prezi production by
Gavin Geddes©
Has it ever been used in Britain?
Which countries use it?
The short answer is no. However, it has tried to be implemented in the UK, most notably under the coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. This was because FTPT is a majoritarian system, wheras AV is a proportianal system. This benefits Liberal democrats more; so the Liberal Democrats asked for this. Although the conservatives did not like this and proposed a referendum.
Only three in the world use it, Australlia, Fiji and Papua New Guinea. This shows that it is a week system of voting, which shows that not many people use it.
What is it?
How does it work?
It is a preferential voting system, where voters can rank candidates in order of preference. They put there first candidate with a number 1.) next to it; so on.
Candidates are elected outright if they gain more than half of the first preference votes.
If there is not an outright winner, the candidate who lost (the one with least first preferences) is eliminated and their votes are redistributed according to the second (or next available) preference marked on the ballot paper. This process continues until one candidate has half of the votes and is elected.