GLASGOW (CU)_Voters in Scotland, together with those in England and Wales, will vote in local elections next week. Since the last vote in 2017, the political landscape has changed significantly in Scotland, where Labour’s status is the dominant theme, with members hope to replace the Tories as the country’s second largest party behind the Scottish National Party. In the case of the elections, one of the UK’s leading pollsters says May’s vote could be even more polarised between Yes and No voters than the last ballot.
A new report issued by the Electoral Reform Society found that Scottish voters have embraced transferable voting, with electors north of the border being increasingly adapted to the preferential Single Transferable Voting (STV) system since it was introduced 15 years ago. STV is a type of ranked preferential electoral system which allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, thereby allowing them to back more than one party. Voters have headed to the polls using this system three times so far. In 2017, almost 86 per cent of valid ballot papers had at least two preferences, in line with that of 2012, although a hike from the 78 per cent in 2007, the research found.
While this suggests that Scottish voters are embracing transferable voting, according to Sir John Curtis, professor of politics at Strathclyde University, the way in which they are doing this has marked differences at the last vote in 2017. “On the one hand, voters were more likely to cast multiple preferences than previously, and in so doing to rank candidates from more than one party. Moreover, lower preferences influenced the outcome in seats to a greater extent than before,” he said. “On the other hand, voters were less likely than previously to express preferences across the constitutional fault line that divides Scottish politics.”
