One million Welsh votes ‘wasted’ in election
SEVERAL key South Wales constituencies witnessed the country’s biggest proportion of “wasted votes” in June’s General Election, according to the Electoral Reform Society (ERS).
Its new report published today – 2017 General Election: Volatile Voting, Random Results – finds that in Wales, as many as 1,063,610 votes had no impact on the election result – 67.52% of the total votes cast.
The report counts as “wasted”, votes for losing candidates and votes that were not necessary to elect the winning candidate.
The ERS – which is fighting for a proportional voting system – argues that because you only need one more vote than the second-place candidate to win a seat, after that any extra votes might as well have not been cast.
Under a proportional voting system, the losing votes would count. In many seats in Wales candidates pile up big majorities, but only one MP can be elected in each constituency under Westminster’s “first past the post” voting system, whether they have a majority of one or many thousands.
In Wales, the seats deemed to have the biggest proportion of “wasted” votes included Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney (81.9%), Cynon Valley (80.61%), Cardiff Central (80.19%), Blaenau Gwent (78.75%), Rhondda (77.68%), and Ogmore (74.86%), although the single highest figure was Aberavon (82.26%).
On top of this, says the report, nearly one in four Welsh voters were forced to vote tactically on June 8, a figure higher than the UK average of one in five.
The report also highlights the disproportionate results of the General Election, with Labour winning 70% of the seats in Wales (28 out of 40) from 48.9% of the vote.
The Conservatives actually increased their vote share in Wales by 6.3% to 33.6% despite losing three seats. They won eight seats, just 20% of the total.
Plaid Cymru won four seats (10% of the total) with 10.4% of the vote. Plaid’s share of the vote in Wales was down from 11.7% in 2015, when they won only three seats.
Under different circumstances the results would look very different for Wales.
The ERS’s favoured system is the Single Transferable Vote (STV) form of proportional representation.
Under STV, Labour would have won 22 seats, the Conservatives 14, Plaid Cymru three and the Liberal Democrats one.
Across Britain as a whole – excluding Northern Ireland and the Speaker – Labour would have won more seats than the Conservatives under STV.
ERS Cymru director Jess Blair said: “This election has demonstrated that the first past the post system is not fit for purpose for a third time in a row, with over a million wasted votes, 24% of people forced to vote tactically and disproportionate results that do not represent the voices of many people in Wales.
“We need to move towards a means of electing our MPs where people’s voices are properly heard and where people don’t feel forced to hold their nose at the ballot box.”