New YouGov poll: Over a quarter of Welsh voters intend to vote ‘tactically’ in General Election
Hundreds of thousands of Welsh voters are set to ‘hold their nose’ and vote tactically in the General Election on 12th December, according to new polling for ERS Cymru by YouGov.
The poll found that 29% of Welsh voters could turn to tactical voting in next month’s election – unable to opt for their first choice under Westminster’s First Past the Post system.
The figure was even higher among younger voters – with more 18-24-year-olds planning to vote tactically than not. Just 43% of them said they woud vote for their preferred candidate.
The UK remains the only country in Europe to use First Past the Post for national elections – where only one candidate wins in each area, and all other votes do not count – for its main elections.
‘Pacts’
Commenting on the results, ERS Cymru Director, Jess Blair said it was clear that the Westminster First Past the Post system is “fundamentally broken and undermining Welsh democracy”.
“The results are the consequence of a broken voting system, where people feel they can’t always vote for their first choice in elections,” she said. “It’s absurd that Welsh voters continue to have this stitch-up imposed on them.
“This election has already seen a surge in electoral pacts between parties, limiting voters’ choice before they even make it to the ballot box. With these results, we now know that a large proportion of voters feel even less able to have their say.
“If we had a fair, proportional voting system this problem simply wouldn’t exist: you can vote for who you want, and if your first choice doesn’t stand a chance, your second choice is counted instead.
“It’s long past time Westminster moved into the 21st century and ensured people were heard and represented – rather than voters in Wales and across the UK constantly having to game the system.”
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I doubt electoral reform will save Westminster. Maybe to house an English parliament?
But they’ll have to be quick, as Yorkshire alone has a growing indy movement.
North of England is a natural breakaway unit, essentially Mersey to Humber with whole of Yorks, Lancs + possibly Cheshire, Derby and Lincs. One day they may have the bottle to do it. Probably sooner than servile Welsh with their fixation on hand outs from London ( and Brussels !)
What benefit would there be to an independent north of England??
The UK is a small nation as it is.
That is the myopic view of the “big is beautiful” brigade. Plenty of small countries, sub 5 million population even below 3 million who get on with their lives without trying to be big shots in this modern world and getting deeper into debt for the trouble. Learning to keep your nose out of other people’s business would be a useful lesson drawn from fragmenting the UK into manageably small nation states.
So Welsh people would need a visa to go to England, and another one to go to the north of England, what possible benefit would there be to all these tiny nations on a tiny island????
Sorry to disappoint but since when did you need a visa for Europe pre EU, do stop talking nonsense
you mean like the last UK general election? Clear result = minority government or majority government on 32% of the vote.
MPs keep ignoring what the voters voted for
The current system favours the two big parties, keeps one of them in power – they’ll never give FPTP up as a result. Recently, the Tories have been (successfully) pushing for a change to the electoral boundaries, why? – it’ll make it even easier for them to stay in power. That is all they care about. We complain about one party states around the world while sustaining a two party state here for hundreds of years. Time for change. If Westminster will not change then Wales, on it’s own, must do so.
Not necessarily so that we’d end up like Italian voting debacle. It might be more like the Scandinavian countries.
The problem with first past the post is, that it is not representative of the nation as a whole. A party can win with just 30 /33% of the electorate having voted for them. The other 67/70% who voted for other parties are left unrepresented. It’s time we introduced some form of Proportional Representation.
But that’s like any contest or race, the losers always outnumber the winner.
That is not democracy, Dave
Well it is, while fringe parties and fruitloops can’t get enough votes and footstamp, most ordinary people are quite happy with the present system.
We have a fringe group or cult in gvt Dai
The article is about tactical voting. I’ve just voted tactically for the first time. Remain being priority in 2019 I voted Labour in Preseli, through gritted teeth, just to beat Crabb. Pity no Welsh party can do better than 3rd/4th in Preseli.
I will be voting tactical. The most important issue for me is stopping the Swansea Bay Tidal Lagoon!!