Northern Ireland uses PR for the Assembly and first past the post for Westminster
The parties are so militant here and DUP and SinnFein that they have their election engine honed to perfection.
West belfast is a predominantly Catholic Republican area with a small enclave of protestant loyalists but Sinn Fein Managed their votes perfectly at the last assembly election to get 6/6 assembly members negating the voice of that protestant enclave.
However smaller parties such as the Greens and the Alliance party did manage to get seats at the assembly, but I am sure once the bigger parties hone their techniques to squeeze these smaller parties.
Sammy Wilson - DUP minister for the environment doesnt believe that humans have caused climate change
What will life be like under the Tories? (2010>)
Moderator: Peak Moderation
It isn't possible to squeeze smaller groups out as long as they reach the quota. I don't know how big the protestant minority is in West Belfast but, if they are a seventh of the people voting (roughly 14%), they would have got one rep under STV.GordyJ1984 wrote:Northern Ireland uses PR for the Assembly and first past the post for Westminster
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West belfast is a predominantly Catholic Republican area with a small enclave of protestant loyalists but Sinn Fein Managed their votes perfectly at the last assembly election to get 6/6 assembly members negating the voice of that protestant enclave.
However smaller parties such as the Greens and the Alliance party did manage to get seats at the assembly, but I am sure once the bigger parties hone their techniques to squeeze these smaller parties.
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Every method of PR has some sort of standards built in. The regional list system for EU elections is a crude sort of PR with an effective cutoff which eliminates very small parties. What I was pointing out before is that even large regions like London or SE England are getting higher effective cutoffs by reducing the number of reps to be elected. It started as about 10% to elect one of 10. This year it will be 12&half% as one of 8.
The London Assembly elections have a proportional element in addition to single member constituencies and that allows smaller parties to get some reps. A 5% cutoff keeps the smallest parties out. It is said that some of the Tories (and Labour?) don't believe in the proportional element and would be quite happy to have a London Assembly which is all Tory/Labour.
In my last post I was thinking of England only. Of course there are more options for the Euro-election in other parts of the UK. I still suggest Powerswitch readers vote for any minor party that they like.