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Topic: FPTP

	The Opposition, Democracy and the Electoral System
		FPTP articulates itself harmoniously with democracy in societies where there is an ideological consensus on the democratic legitimacy of the political regime.
		FPTP thus gives fuel to anti-democratic behavior insofar that those whose votes have been wasted will see merit in resorting to kinship and ethnic relations to protect their interests.
		The FPTP system is limited to the “one person one vote” principle, but the PR system embodies the important principle of “one person one vote one value”, i.e., each voter’s political interests count equally.
	www.addistribune.com /Archives/2003/08/08-08-03/The.htm (1369 words)

	::First Past the Post :: (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		FPTP is as clear and as brutal as that.
		FPTP is a cheap and simple way to hold an election as each voter only has to place one cross on the ballot paper.
		FPTP has created within Great Britain a political system that is essentially stable as politics is dominated by just two parties.
	www.historylearningsite.co.uk /first_past_the_post.htm (1260 words)

	Electoral Systems
		FPTP is also used by a dozen Caribbean nations; by Belize and formerly Guyana in Latin America; by ten Asian states (including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Malaysia); and by many of the small island nations of the South Pacific.
		In FPTP Malaysia, for example, the governing coalition is a broad-based movement, and fields Chinese candidates in Malay areas and vice versa.
		Many proponents of FPTP argue that true representative accountability depends upon the voters of one area knowing who their own representative is, and having the ability to re-elect, or throw them out, at election time.
	faculty.stcc.edu /zagarins/ritdienai/ACEengl/systems.htm (6026 words)

	::Proportional Representation:: (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		This is partly because the first-past-the-post system (FPTP) failed in the 1970's to produce strong majority governments, and partly because the increasing third-party vote since the mid-1970s has highlighted the distortions of the present voting system.
		A similar result would have been obtained in the 2001 election result with the implication that FPTP is unfair and potentially undemocratic in that the number of votes cast for the government is disproportionate to its popularity with the British public.
		FPTP may lead people into not voting for what they might see as a wasted cause.
	www.historylearningsite.co.uk /proportional_representation.htm (1254 words)

	Canadian Islamic Congress \| Positiona Papers and Statements
		FPTP is a plurality electoral system, not a majoritarian one.
		MPs are held personally responsible to all the people of their home riding for policies adopted by the entire party they represent; and if that party forms the government, the same holds true for government policies enacted under their watch.
		In this case, the pro-PR argument is that the current FPTP system is actually a deformed type of democracy and that a PR election would have given the Green Party one or more seats and a voice in Parliament.
	www.canadianislamiccongress.com /democracy/papers.php (1046 words)

	Plurality voting system - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
		Plurality voting is used in 43 of the 191 countries in the United Nations for either local or national elections.
		FPTP also encourages regional parties which can be very popular in one geographical region but have little or no support in other parts of the electorate.
		A feature of the FPTP system is that invariably, voters can select only one candidate in a single-member district, whilst in multi-member districts they can never select more candidates than the number of seats in the district.
	en.wikipedia.org /wiki/FPTP (4639 words)

	Farrell, Chapter 3 (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		Both majoritarian systems share in common with FPTP a 'district magnitude' of one; the country is divided into a series of one seat constituencies.
		Under FPTP, Phil Archer (Labor Party) would have been elected as the candidate with the most votes (a respectable 42 per cent of the valid vote, as compared to 34 per cent for his nearest rival, John Sharp of the National Party).
		Unlike FPTP (and, in some circumstances, second ballot), the candidate elected has more votes than all the other candidates combined; he or she enjoys majority support in the constituency.
	janda.org /c24/Readings/Farrell/Farrell3.htm (4904 words)

	Legal Resources
		FPTP exaggerates movements of opinion, and when they are strong produces mammoth majorities in the House of Commons.
		One thing that FPTP assuredly does not do is to allow the elector to exercise a free choice in both the selection of a constituency representative and the determination of the government of the country.
		Instead FPTP gave them 165 or 25% of the seats, whereas AV would have given them on one estimate only 96 (or 14.6% of the seats), and on the more favourable one from their point of view 110 seats (or 16.7% of the total).
	www.fairvote.org /library/geog/europe/jenkins.htm (14723 words)

	Make Votes Count - Reaction to May 4th Elections
		The FPTP campaign claimed, in January, to have 'killed the debate', 'ditched the pledge' and 'won' the Party's consultation over Jenkins (thanks to the delivery of 1,000 signed standard letters).
		But under FPTP Labour is likely to be squeezed by the Tories in the South and the Lib Dems in the North on a relatively small swing of the vote.
		FPTP is the Party machine politicians first choice - but voters are becoming more discerning and they clearly don't like Party machines.
	www.makevotescount.org.uk /pr20000503.shtml (779 words)

	farrell3.htm (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		This chapter focuses primarily on the operation of FPTP and the debate on its possible reform in the British context.
		Its report in 1980 did not favour replacing FPTP with PR, but significantly this conclusion was not supported by the Labour minority on the Committee, who called for the establishment of a wide-ranging Royal Commission on electoral reform.
		FPTP does, however, also have a number of apparent advantages, particularly in terms of its promotion of single-party, stable govern ment; the central role of constituency representation, and its much trumpeted simplicity.
	janda.org /c24/Readings/Farrell/Farrell2.htm (8441 words)

	Gauntlet.ca - the politics of .ca: "First-Past-The" Post (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The major problem with FPTP is the ease with which a majority is achieved in the House of Commons.
		Single Transferable Vote is just one system that maintains the vote for the individual, yet directly deals with one of the major weaknesses of FPTP: namely that the population of a riding may on the whole prefer not to have the elected candidate represent them.
		FPTP is a representation method (one member per riding) a ballot counting method (plurality) and a balloting method (single approval).
	www.gauntlet.ca /2005/07/first-past-post.html (4101 words)

	Changing Democracy \| Definitions
		First Past the Post -- FPTP is used to elect politicians in Canada.
		FPTP can result in skewed representation in parliament, or a legislature, with only the two or three most popular parties represented.
		FPTP makes it relatively easy for voters to kick out an unpopular government.
	www.jackwebster.com /vote/defin_vote.htm (393 words)

	The Fraser Institute: Finally! Reforming Politics: The BC Blueprint
		FPTP is unsuitable where the electorate is polarized between two strong factions eg.
		Under FPTP that is simply false. Typically, in BC and federal elections over half, and often as many as two-thirds of the candidates are elected on less than a majority of the votes cast.
		AV is as disproportional as FPTP. It is a often mistakingly assumed that when each MLA is elected by a majority, government is elected by a majority. It is theoretically possible to elect a majority government with AV on just twenty-six percent support.
	oldfraser.lexi.net /publications/politics_reform/loenen.html (2488 words)

	Election Resources on the Internet: Elections to the New Zealand House of Representatives
		Fifty-five percent of the electorate took part in the vote, in which a proposal to establish a new electoral system was overwhelmingly approved in the first part of the referendum, with 1,031,257 votes (84.7%) in favor, against 186,027 votes (15.3%) for retaining the existing system.
		The overwhelming rejection of the FPTP electoral system in the 1992 referendum appeared to have been brought about by mounting voter discontent with the two major parties, both of which had broken campaign promises and pursued unpopular economic policies while in office.
		Although proponents of FPTP - which was replaced by MMP in the referendum held simultaneously with the election - had promoted the system on the grounds that it led to strong, stable governments, the election-night results failed to produce a clear outcome, as no party won an absolute majority of seats in Parliament.
	electionresources.org /nz (2283 words)

	The 2002 Kenya Elections
		Some opposition members such as Nyeri Town MP Wanyiri Kihoro are also apprehensive of the move, saying that "it is likely to defeat the purpose of a sovereign parliament and downgrade the power of the elected representatives." He alleged that such MPs would strive to please their masters rather than attend to national matters.
		While the FPTP system is attractive to some countries for its simplicity in design and operation, its critics argue that it falls far short of reflecting the voters' true wishes.
		The same trend was repeated in 1997, where Kanu had 107 (51 per cent) of the 210 elective seats with a popular vote of 39 per cent, compared with the combined opposition's 103 (39 per cent) of the seats with 61 per cent of the popular vote.
	www.nationaudio.com /elections/keyissues/KeyIssues_Election2.html (1057 words)

	[No title]
		We are concerned that FPTP distorts the wishes of the voters, can result in councils which are not representative of the communities they serve and that this can reduce their perceived legitimacy.
		Parties fail to win their fair share of seats Another consequence of the FPTP system is that significant parties, and therefore significant sections of the electorate, are left without representation: Lab: In Daventry Labour won 30% of the vote and yet only won one seat.
		The unrepresentative nature of FPTP creates a danger that mainstream parties ignore the need to respond to the problems of the electorate creating circumstances in which many people will either not vote or will vote for extremists who appear to be articulating their concerns.
	www.makevotescount.org.uk /elect2002.doc (1897 words)

	[No title] (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		PR proponents point out that FPTP favours the largest party, as well as parties with concentrated regional support. In Canada, the fate of the Progressive Conservatives in the 1993 general election is the prime example of the ineffectiveness of FPTP in representing smaller parties with diffuse support.
		The main supporting point for FPTP is the same reason it is criticised by its opponents: the ability for the largest party to gain a majority of seats without a majority of votes.
		Defenders of FPTP also point out that the benefits attributed to PR in crossing social and regional divisions are not truly reconciling these problems, and that the electoral system itself is not a main factor in bridging such gaps.
	www.plum-blossom.net /blog/POLI_101_FPTP.doc (2068 words)

	Electoral Reform Society (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		FPTP regularly produces the 'wrong' result in close elections, for the principal reason that translating votes to seats in FPTP depends on extraneous factors like differential turnout and how 'efficiently' a party's vote is spread.
		The irony of FPTP supporters complaining about an indecisive result is that their favoured system would not have produced a decisive result in Germany either.
		Under a FPTP system, everything would have to wait on this constituency, and its voters would essentially have the casting vote on the composition of the national government - and whatever government emerged would be in a precarious parliamentary situation.
	www.electoral-reform.org.uk /publications/briefings/germany2005.htm (1110 words)

	Friends Peace Teams Project, by Bill Samuel - QuakerInfo.com
		Although originally the FPTP did not envision itself as organizing its own international peace teams, when the need became evident it was able to respond.
		FPTP facilitates individual Friends participating in training and peace teams sponsored by these groups.
		Through these partnerships, the FPTP extends its involvement to such areas as the Palestinian West Bank, the Mexican state of Chiapas, Columbia and Haiti.
	www.quakerinfo.com /quakfptp.shtml (880 words)

	Cherniak on Politics: The case for FPTP
		FPTP is loved by large parties that retain power with false majorities.
		FPTP not only stifles political voices in Canada by producing distorted representation and freezing out parties that, in spite of everything, have gained a respectable number of votes (eg.
		Without FPTP, he never would have been elected as an independent this time around." but as far as I now nobody is seriously proposing any alternatives to FPTP in which Cadman couldn't have been elected.
	jasoncherniak.blogspot.com /2005/07/case-for-fptp.html (7055 words)

	First Past the Post electoral system - Electowiki
		In 2005, the Candian province of British Columbia held a referendum on changing their FPTP to STV; it was narrowly defeated.
		One consequence of the system is that many FPTP elections can be considered won before all votes are tallied, once there are no longer enough uncounted votes to override an established plurality count.
		Since FPTP combined with single member constituencies generate a winner's bonus, if not winner takes all, the loyal opposition can be left with few if any seats.
	wiki.electorama.com /wiki/First-past-the-post (1997 words)

	New Zealand: A Westminster Democracy Switches to PR (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		The second referendum was a straight choice between the FPTP and the MMP electoral systems, and MMP won 53.9 percent of the referendum votes.
		On each occasion, the panel was headed by the country's Chief Ombudsman and had a substantial budget for the task of informing voters about the mechanics - and, in effect, the advantages and the disadvantages - of the different options under consideration in each of the referendums.
		New Zealand's last FPTP election was held on 6 November 1993, on the same day as the referendum in which voters adopted MMP as the country's new electoral system.
	aceproject.dd.ifes.org /main/english/es/esy_nz (1312 words)

	l'express (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		I have deliberately kept the analysis and the electoral algorithm very simple so as to ease understanding for those not familiar with the theory and practice of electoral systems and the methodology used to measure stability and fairness.
		It should be clear that a minimum percentage of PR seats is required to mitigate the huge disproportionality between votes and seats in FPTP.
		With the current FPTP formula, the unfairness, as measured by the difference between votes and seats is inordinate at 45% (100% of seats for 55% of votes and 0 seats for 45% of votes).
	www.lexpress.mu /display_article.php?news_id=13545 (895 words)

	[No title]
		FPTP can also be used to elect multiple candidates for a constituency in some local elections.
		Individual states choose their own voting systems for state legislatures, although most choose to use FPTP; a notable exception is in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where the city council and school board are both elected by STV.
		The President is elected by an electoral college: each state has a FPTP election to determine the electoral college representatives for that state.
	pl.atyp.us /misc/votefaq.txt (3471 words)

	The Canadian Electoral System: A Case Study (Site not responding. Last check: 2007-11-03)
		That FPTP is appropriate for Canada has largely been taken for granted in part because Canadians' familiarity with electoral experiences outside its borders generally extends only to the US and UK.
		The Task Force on Canadian Unity (Pepin-Robarts Commission) in its 1979 Report included a recommendation for just over 20 percent of the seats in the House of Commons to be accorded to the parties proportional to their support and from those provinces in which there was underrepresentation.
		Ironically, the distorting effects of the FPTP electoral system on representation in the House of Commons - combined with Canadians' tendency to identify politically along regional lines - have probably never been greater than in the last two federal elections.
	aceproject.dd.ifes.org /main/english/es/esy_ca.htm (1001 words)

	Learning - Last Rights
		In producing single party governments FPTP dramatically exaggerates the parliamentary representation of the leading party (or parties).
		FPTP actively excludes many minority parties from representation in Westminster.
		The fact that no majority is required is often seen as a major drawback for the FPTP system, but it does make a number of things simple – for instance, the ballot forms only need have the names of one candidate from each party – rather than a list of potentially hundreds of names.
	www.channel4.com /learning/microsites/L/lastrights/programme1_bg.html (496 words)

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