Direct Party and Representative Voting (DPR)

Updated January 2012 |

Direct Party and Representative Voting (DPR)

DPR Voting - simple, practical, powerful electoral reform

Direct Party and Representative Voting is an electoral system intended as the basis for reform of the House of Commons in the UK.

Proportional Representation and the single member constituency

A form of Proportional Representation for multi party parliamentary democracies with single member constituencies. A simple practical system to replace 'First past the post' (FPTP) voting.


DPR Voting - A Summary

Direct Party and Representative Voting (DPR Voting) is a simple electoral system for parliamentary democracies designed to replace the 'First past the post' - FPTP - voting system used to elect the House of Commons in the UK.
It is a form of Proportional Representation based on single member constituencies. The total number of MPs and the existing constituency boundaries do not need to be changed.

Voters have two separate and distinct votes. One vote determines the number of votes the party has in the Parliament, and one vote elects the MP for the constituency.

The party votes, aggregated nationwide, determine the number of votes each party has in the parliament and therefore which party, or parties, can form the Government.

MPs are elected in each constituency by simple plurality of the representative votes.

MPs exercise their party’s parliamentary votes.
The Party's votes are shared out equally amongst the parties sponsored MPs, so each MP has a vote that has a value which may be more or less than one.
Each MP has an equal vote on ‘non party political’ issues.
Principal outcomes:
..
  • A form of proportional representation is achieved with minimal change to the voting system.
  • The existing system of single member constituencies is retained.
  • The existing system of electing MPs is retained.
  • Each vote in every constituency makes (not 'might make') a difference to the result of the election.
  • The votes each party has in parliament are proportional to the votes won in the election.
  • This determines which party, or parties, can form the government
  • The elections of the MP and the party of government are not conflated, improving voter choice.
  • There are no safe seats.
  • The election is not decided by voting in 'marginal' constituencies. All votes are of equal importance.
  • Simplicity of voting and counting is comparable with FPTP.
  • Frequent revision to constituency boundaries is not required to retain this fairness.
..
Note: Voting is not preferential
  Multimember constituencies are not used
  Party Lists are not used
..

Comment:
DPR Voting is a way of introducing proportionality to our multi party political system while retaining much of the existing familiar electoral system. It addresses the main criticisms of the FPTP and avoids the main criticisms of other proposed systems of electoral reform.

It requires some changes to the way parliament operates.
DPR Voting does not necessarily result in a parliament which is a microcosm of British Society.
Each MP who is elected is the local choice, elected on individual merit.
MPs elected under FPTP could hope to be re-elected under DPR Voting in their existing constituencies.

Because much of the existing electoral system is retained, the changeover to DPR Voting would be eased.
The cost of introducing the new system would be relatively low.
It would be straightforward to reverse the change.
What makes DPR Voting different and better?
A party sponsored MP has two hats - the MP supports his/her party's programme, but at the same time is also a constituency representative. The voter has two objectives - to vote for a party to form the government and to vote for a local constituency representative.
DPR Voting recognises and accommodates both these aspects of our party based democracy.

Secondly, in DPR Voting, every vote makes (not 'might make') a difference to the election result.
It doesn't matter in which constituency each vote is cast. In a DPR Voting election every vote for every party is counted to determine the election result.

As a replacement for FPTP, DPR Voting offers more advantages and fewer disadvantages than any other system.

DPR Voting - the best electoral system to replace FPTP

The introduction of DPR Voting would involve only the smallest change to our current electoral system. It would preserve the relationship between MPs and their constituents on the basis of a method of constituency election which is familiar.
DPR Voting would achieve greater equality for the voter, greater voter choice, and a form of proportional representation at minimum cost and with minimum disruption. It could be simply and powerfully presented to the electorate as a fairer electoral system for Westminster.
.
For more, see 'On procedure and politics' a blog which focuses on aspects of parliamentary procedure and politics, parliamentary and electoral reform rather than partisan debate and policy analysis, straddling the UK and Canada.
 

Comment from Arend Lijphart, Professor Emeritus of Political Science, University of California, San Diego.

Thank you for bringing the DPR Voting system to my attention.  I had not heard of it before.
I agree with you that it represents a big improvement compared with the current FPTP system in the UK, because it is basically a PR instead of a majoritarian system.  My own preference is for straightforward list PR, but the practical advantage of DPR Voting may be that it may be more acceptable to the British public.
Good luck with your proposal! Arend

Direct Party and Representative Voting
(pdf file)
(word doc)
 A full description

  'First past the post' is an unsatisfactory way of choosing a government  
 
As a system for choosing a constituency MP, FPTP is simple and straightforward. As a way of choosing a government, it is inherently flawed, erratic and unfair. It works best, but not perfectly, for two party politics. It is not designed as a fair system for multi-party politics. With more than two parties it displays bias against third or smaller parties whose supporters are widely spread geographically. This undermines the democratic credentials of our system of government.

In an election there are two objectives for the voter:
Firstly, to vote for a party to form a national government.
Secondly, to elect an individual to the parliament to represent the people who live in the local constituency..
In the FPTP system these two objectives are conflated in one vote. Support for a party is inextricably linked to support for a candidate. This restricts voting freedom, and allows too many MPs to be elected in safe seats.

The shortcomings of the system are compounded by the way we count the result.
We elect a number of individuals, and once elected, a parliament is formed from the elected individuals. As part of this process we confer on them equal elected status, ignoring all the votes cast in the election for both winning and losing parties/candidates. A majority of one vote counts equally with a majority of 10,000. Similarly 10,000 votes cast for a losing candidate are completely ignored.

If we conflate the questions of party and representative, and then confer one equal vote on each elected MP, we ignore the total numbers of votes cast in the election and the result is almost inevitably unfair, unrepresentative and undemocratic.

  

 
Upheaval for administrators?
The introduction of DPR Voting to replace the existing FPTP system for election to the House of Commons would require less upheaval than the change to any other PR system. This is because no changes are necessary to the number of MPs, the number of constituencies, or the constituency boundaries. The process of voting and counting is very similar and simple.
 

The features of DPR Voting - an extended list
 

PR, Proportional Representation in parliament - the Party vote

■ A form of proportional representation is achieved with minimal change to the voting system.
■ The votes each party has in parliament are proportional to the votes won in the election.
■ This determines which party, or parties, can form the government
■ Each voter, in every constituency, makes (not 'might make') a difference to the election result
■
 It removes any rationale for tactical voting
■ There are no 'marginal' constituencies - all votes are equal
■
There are no safe seats
■ The system works with the existing constituencies
■
 The system is not sensitive to demographic changes or boundary changes
■
 Politically neutral and unbiased - it gives no unfair advantage to any of the parties
■
 Fair representation for small parties
■ The system is resistant to gerrymandering
■ As with any PR system 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 plurality system
■
 Representative votes cast do not affect the number of party votes in the Parliament
■
 The election of the MP is not conflated with support for the political party
■
 The election of the MP is on personal merit and confers a measure of independence from party bosses
■
 Party Bosses have reduced freedom to 'parachute' a candidate into a constituency
■
 The accountability of the MP to their constituents is increased
■
 The election will allow comparison of the votes cast for the Party, and the Party's candidate
■ Candidates from smaller parties have a better chance of being elected than with FPTP
■ Independent candidates have a better chance of being elected than with other electoral systems
■
 For a party that achieves a threshold level of Party votes, but fails to get any MP elected, the system allows for election of a single MP.
 

 
 

The election process

■
 No major change to the overall election process would be required
■ Few changes would be required to local electoral administration arrangements
■ Voting is simple and intuitive
■ Counting is quick and straightforward.
■
 The outcome of the election expressed as percentages for each party is easy to understand.
■
 The system would be easy to introduce because very little change is required.

If you would like to comment about DPR Voting as an electoral system to replace FPTP, please email the editor.

see also DPR in Practice
 see also A comparison with STV
see also Constituency boundaries and fair elections
see also MPs and differing vote values - a chamber of equals?
see also Small Party representation

The special case of the convention concerning the Election of the Speaker
It is the convention that the Speaker is returned unopposed. Under FPTP this means that the Speaker's constituents are disenfranchised.
(Under DPR Voting the electorate still gets the chance to vote in the Speaker's constituency)

 

DPR Voting - simple, practical, powerful electoral reform


Back to top