Direct Party and Representative Voting (DPR)

Updated May 2010 |

Direct Party and Representative Voting (DPR)

DPR Voting - simple, practical, powerful electoral reform


Direct Party and Representative Voting is a proportional representation (PR) electoral system intended for the UK House of Commons which maintains the single member constituency, and requires little change to the existing voting system.

The existing majoritarian method of electing MPs is retained.
An extra vote is cast which determines how many votes each party has in the House of Commons.

The two are married together by sharing out equally the number of House of Commons votes each party wins amongst the party's elected MPs.

The voter has the choice of voting both for the party and the representative without the one compromising the other.

The Party Vote
Every qualifying party is present in the first section on the ballot paper in each constituency. The voter chooses one party. A vote can be cast for party A even when no party A candidate is standing in the constituency. The votes for the parties are totalled up at the constituency level and then aggregated to give a national total.
The national totals yield a percentage of the vote for each party. The Parliamentary votes (currently there are 650) are shared out firstly to each party according to the percentage each party receives in the national vote.

The Representative Vote
This election is identical to the current majoritarian system for the election of MPs in use in the UK, and could operate with the existing constituencies. It is not dependent on redrawing boundaries. In each constituency every properly nominated candidate is present on the second section of the ballot paper with a descriptor as at present. The voter chooses one candidate. The winner is the candidate that receives the most votes.

In Parliament.
As a result of the election each party will have won a number of parliamentary votes, based on the percentage in the Party vote election, and a number of MPs. MPs will vote in Parliament as at present, but instead of having one vote they will have an equal share of the party's Party votes.
If party A got 40% support in the ‘Party' vote but 50% of the MPs, each of their MPs would have a vote value of 40/50 = 0.8
If party B got 40% support in the ‘Party’ vote but 30% of the MPs, each of their MPs would have a vote value of 40/30 = 1.333

MPs elected as Independents would have a vote value of one.
Non government bills (Free Votes) could be determined by one vote per MP. A bill would only be considered a Free vote if all parties agree as much.

MPs elected at a by-election would have a vote value of one.
MPs would retain their vote value until the next General election.
An MP who resigned the whip would retain the same value vote either as an independent or when voting with one of the other parties.

Machine readable swipe cards for each MP make voting foolproof and simple. (and also make keeping voting records easy)


The features of the system
  The election for the Party to form a Government - the Party vote
■ Every vote makes an incremental difference towards party strength in the House of Commons.
■
 The vote is a true measure of the strength of each party.
■
 There is no rationale for tactical voting.
■ There are no 'marginal' constituencies
■
There are no safe seats
■ The system works with the existing constituencies
■
 The system is not sensitive to demographic changes or boundary changes
■
 Politically unbiased - it gives no advantage to any of the parties
■ As with other PR systems there is a greater chance of coalition government than under FPTP.
   
  The election of the Constituency MP - the Representative vote
■ The election of the constituency MP is identical to the existing majoritarian system.
■
 Representative votes cast do not affect party parliamentary strength.
■
 The merits and track records of the candidates would play a prominent part in the local campaign.
■
 Voter behaviour is expected to change.
■
 The accountability of the MP to their constituents is increased.
   
The election process
■
 No major change to overall election process would be required
■ Party Campaign tactics would be expected to change.
■ Few changes would be required to local Electoral administration arrangements
■ Voting is simple and intuitive
■ Counting would be quick and straigthforward.
■
 The outcome of the election expressed as percentages for each party would be easy to understand.
■
 The system would be easy to introduce because very little change is required.
see DPR in Practice
see DPR - the pure and simple voting system

DPR Voting - simple, practical, powerful electoral reform


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