Did it deliver a fair result?

What are the Euro Elections?

Elections to the European Parliament were held in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) between 4 and 7 June 2009.

A total of 736 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) were elected to represent some 500 million Europeans, making these the biggest trans-national elections in history.

The UK is divided into twelve electoral regions with between three and ten MEPs representing each region. The nine English regions elected 59 MEPs, Scotland elected six MEPs and Wales four MEPs. In Northern Ireland three MEPs were elected via the Single Transferable Vote (STV).

Who Won?

Party    % age of vote Seats 

       

Conservatives   27.7 25

United Kingdom Independence Party

  16.5 13

Labour   15.7 13

Liberal Democrats   13.7 11

Greens   8.6 2

British National Party   6.2 2

Scottish National Party   2.1 2

Plaid Cymru   0.8 1

       

 Northern Ireland      

       

Sinn Fein   26.0 1

Democratic Unionist Party   18.2 1

 Ulster Conservatives & Unionists

  17.1 1

SDLP   16.2 0

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV)

  13.7 0

 Alliance   5.5 0

 Greens   3.3 0

Scotland’s MEPs

1 SNP - 321,007 votes (29.1%)2 Labour - 229,853 votes (20.8%)3 Tory - 185,794 votes (16.8%)4 Lib Dem - 127,038 (11.5%)5 Greens - 80,442 (7.3%)6 UKIP - 57,788 (5.2%)7 BNP - 27,174 (2.5%)

Voter turnout - 28.6%Rejected ballots - 4,490

How many did you recognise?!

David Martin Catherine Stihler

Ian Hudghton Alyn Smith

Struan StevensonJohn Purvis Elspeth Attwooll

What did the results mean?

At a UK level, the Conservatives triumphed, seeing their win as another step closer to a General Election win in 2010.

The SNP, for the first time ever, beat Labour in a European election.

The UKIP were delighted with their 2nd place with very anti-EU policies.

The BNP won their very first ever Euro seats.

For Labour.. “a long, dark night of humiliation”

6

The 2009 Euro elections further weakened PM Brown’s authority.

“A long, dark night of humiliation”.

Labour won less than 16% of the vote and came 3rd, behind UKIP.

Implications of the BNP’s success

The Royal British Legion has called on Nick Griffin to stop wearing its poppy emblem.

The UK Government may ban BNP members from becoming teachers. BNP members are already banned from the police force and the prison service.

But, the BNP will undoubtedly benefit from the estimated £200,000 in income from the European parliament. It will use this to build its party organisation

It may also benefit from the “oxygen of publicity”. Leader Nick Griffin (in)famously appeared on BBC Question Time.Not in My Name

England, Scotland and Wales use the d’Hondt Party List system

Voting is simple. Voters place one “X” next to who they wish to vote for. That’s all.

Its in deciding how the seats are allocated where it gets difficult!

In a given region e.g. Scotland, the allocated seats are awarded using a quota system. The quota is the total number of votes received by a party or independent candidate divided by the number of seats already gained in that region +1.

So, for a party with no seats the number of votes received is divided by one, and so stays the same.

If the party already has one seat then its number of votes is divided by two, if it has two seats it is divided by three, and so on.

total number of votes received by a party or independent candidate

the number of seats already gained in that region +1

The Magic Formula!

But, Northern Ireland uses STV!

The use of STV in Northern Ireland pre-dates the establishment of an elected European Parliament, which didn't come into existence until 1979.

In a society as divided as Northern Ireland, STV, more than any other system tends to deliver something for everyone, if not the more precise proportionality d’Hondt delivers.

Perhaps keeping the peace is more important than arguments over the fairness of the result.

Arguments for the d’Hondt

Results are very proportional. Each party gets the representation it’s share of the vote merits.

It’s very simple to vote! Just place a “X” next to your favourite party.

There are no key marginal seats which parties pay more attention to. Every vote and every voter is of equal value.

Arguments against the d’Hondt

The large constituencies can be very impersonal and impact on voter relations with MEPs.

Party lists mean that being popular with the party machine is more important than being popular with voters.

Extremist candidates can be elected with a small percentage of the votes.

Does PR increase turnout?

UK General Election2010FPTP

Scottish local councils2007STV

Scottish Parliament2007

AMS

European Parliament2009

d’Hondt Party List

VoterTurnout

65.1% 52.1% 51.7% 34%

The type of voting system, on its own, would not appear to be the decisive factor in encouraging voters to turn out and vote.

Euro elections have never been taken that seriously by UK voters

UK voters appear to see the General Election as the most important, despite its much criticised First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system.

Did d’Hondt deliver fairness?It depends what you define as fairness!

It certainly delivered a more proportional result.

But, this has to be balanced against the impersonality of the large constituencies and the general apathy surrounding the Euro elections.

Many voters simply do not know who their MEP is or what he/she does on their behalf.

No voting system is perfect. All have their strengths and weaknesses.

UK European Election Results 2009