No Lib Dem/Tory Coalition in Epsom & Ewell

There's certainly no coalition between Epsom & Ewell Liberal Democrats and Epsom's Conservatives when it comes to borough council elections and the Alternative Vote referendum in May.

As well as electing a new borough council, residents will go to the polls to say YES or NO to a new voting system which would replace our First-Past-The-Post method of electing MPs.

Cllr Julie Morris, leader of the Liberal Democrat group on Epsom & Ewell Borough Council, says "The leader of Epsom's Conservative councillors has come out strongly against voting reform whilst the Lib Dems are in favour of the Alternative Vote system. She continues "Back in the 1950s, the two main parties were regularly supported by more than 90% of voters, meaning the vast majority of MPs were elected with more than half the vote of their community. Now only 33% of MPs elected in this Parliament have the support of a majority of the people they are seeking to represent."

Though it's not the case in the constituency of Epsom & Ewell, across the country most people are represented by an MP that they didn't vote for. Nationally, the Liberal Democrats were known to favour greater electoral reforms, but it was a referendum on AV which was agreed by the Coalition government. Cllr Morris continued "there's plenty of information available online about AV - try the Electoral Reform Society's website or search YestoFairerVotes. Unfortunately the No2AV campaign appears to focus on criticising the Liberal Democrats rather than putting a case for keeping FPTP - maybe there just isn't one!"

AV takes a bit of explaining though it's very much like FPTP with a different counting system. Rather than marking one solitary "X" on the ballot paper, the voter ranks candidates in order, putting a "1" by their first preference candidate and, if they wish, a "2" by their second choice and so on. If a candidate receives a majority of first-preference votes (more people put them as number one than all the rest combined), then they win. If no candidate gains a majority of first preferences, then the second-preference votes of the candidate who finished LAST are redistributed. This process is repeated until a candidate gets over 50% of the total number of votes - and they are then elected.