Nick Clegg threatens UK's first past the post system.
British poll watchers are in a frenzy over the surge by Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democratic candidate (who, incidentally, interned at the Nation magazine in the 1990's). According to the daily YouGov poll for the Sun, the third party challenger has actually vaulted ahead of both Labour and the Conservatives. (You can follow the latest twists and turns at the RCP UK election poll tracker.)
Among the many consequences of the Clegg ascendancy is the viability of Britain's "first past the post" electoral system. Lewis Baston explains:
Labour is resilient to a falling national share because it has an efficiently distributed vote â?? a large number of low-turnout strongholds, competitive marginals and few votes in its high-turnout hopeless seats.But because Lib Dem support is fairly evenly spread, it is hard for that party to translate broad increases in its share of the vote into seat gains, and the gains it does manage tend to come from the Conservatives.
The Lib Dems received respectable 20-30% losing shares in many constituencies in 2005, and a 10-point increase across the board would merely produce impressive 30-40% losing scores in most of these seats.
The electoral system could not survive a perverse outcome in which the first party comes third and the third party comes first â?? or one in which the second-placed party has an overall majority, despite the support of fewer than one voter in three. Either case would make Florida in 2000 look like a model of democracy. There would be a justified crisis of confidence in a political system that had produced such a travesty.
(AP Photo)
