Can someone explain AV to me ...

[nappyaddict]

I asked my DP and he said it's pretty much the same as coalition and that was it Have been reading some of the threads on here and I don't think that's right is it?

The current system means we all place one 'x' against one candidate and the candidate that gets the most 'x's wins.

AV means we can rank the candidates 1, 2, 3, 4 etc. Favourite being '1'. All the '1's are then totted up. If someone has got more than 50% of the vote, they win. If not, the candidate that polled the least votes is eliminated. Then all the ballot papers that chose the eliminated candidate '1' are looked at again and their '2' choices are taken into account and added to the first round scores. If someone now has 50% of the vote, they win. If not, another candidate is elimated and their votes are looked at again. Think 'X Factor' :)

The only similarity between AV and the coalition is that candidates would be more likely to try to appeal to as many people as possible. They want to be voted '1' but they also want to get plenty of '2' and '3' choices in case there is a recount situation.

PR (proportional representation) is when everyone votes for their favourite party, the votes are all added up and if a party gets 20% of the votes they get 20% of the MPs. That usually means you have coalitions afterwards because one party is unlikely to be in overall control. AV is not PR.

So with PR do you get one party in control and a prime minister or is the government just made up of how many % each party won?

And with AV all those that voted 1 for the least popular party get looked at again and their 2nd choice is counted instead? And if someone still hasn't got 50% then the 2nd least popular party gets eliminated and those who voted 1 for that party have their number 2 votes counted? Does this mean with AV there would never be a coalition?

With PR the seats are split strictly according to the % of votes each party receives. If there is one party in control at the end of that process.. i.e. 50%+ of the MPs, then their party leader would be asked to form a government. If there is no overall control then the parties will try to form coalitions to get them over the 50% mark, same as they did last May. Under PR, coalitions are highly likely.

With AV you've got the gist of how it operates. The candidate scoring least is eliminated in each round until the redistributed votes finally mean one candidate has >50% of the vote. They become the constituency MP. In the same way as happens now, if one party doesn't have more than 50% of MPs at the end of the general election process, they can either form a coalition (as happened in May 2010) or the biggest party can try to run the government without a majority.

AV produces very similar results to the current system because both mean we end up with one MP per constituency. So the likelihood of a coalition government is quite similar.

av is like pr it means you always have a weak government and what is in the manifesto counts for nothing. it is why sad losers like the greens, millibug and wife cheater/liar hune and his lib fascist friends love it. it gives them power without responsibility