Monday 29 November 2010

Standard #No2AV lies about AV debunked.

Lie:
"AV allows supporters of smaller parties to have more votes"
(recently repeated by David Blunkett)
Debunk:
AV has multiple rounds of voting and all valid votes are counted in every round. If your most preferred candidate is still in the running then your vote for them will be counted, if your most preferred candidate has been knocked out then your highest preference who is still in is counted instead.

Lie:
"Fiji abandoning AV shows that it is not a good system"
(recently repeated by Margret Beckett)
Debunk:
Fiji was subject to a military coup. The military government have abandoned all elections, it isn't AV that they had a problem with it was democracy!


Lie:
"AV will result in permanent coalition government"
Debunk:
The last 28 Australian elections (under AV) have delivered 2 hung parliaments, the last 28 UK elections under FPTP have delivered 3 hung parliaments. So not only has AV not resulted in permanent coalition, it has actually resulted in fewer coalitions in Australia then FPTP has over here!


Lie:
"AV will cement the existing parties in power forever"
Debunk:
No one can present a worked example of how this is supposed to happen! If I see an example I'll update this entry - but this claim seems to have been plucked entirely out of thin air.





I intend to add to this list over time, so it may be edited over time.

2 comments:

  1. The last 28ish elections in Canada have resulted in hung parliaments - The Canadians use FPTP!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ha ha - Thanks for that Simon!

    ReplyDelete