Britain looks set to reject change to voting system

BRITISH voters looked set yesterday to reject a change in the way they elect their MPs as they cast their ballots in a national referendum that has threatened to tear the ruling coalition apart.

Bitter campaigning for the vote opened up a rift between the Conservative party and the Liberal Democrats just one year after they joined forces in an unlikely political marriage.

Opinion polls indicate a landslide win for the campaign led by Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron to keep Britain’s long-standing first past the post system, in which the candidate with the most votes wins.

Deputy prime minister and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg looks set for a humiliating defeat in his campaign to introduce the alternative vote (AV), in which candidates are ranked by preference.

But the issue has largely failed to interest the public as both sides have struggled to get their message across amid the royal wedding between Prince William and Kate Middleton, followed by the death of Osama bin Laden.

Some polling stations in London were largely empty after they opened at 7am, AFP reporters said. They closed at 10pm last night but a result is not expected until late today.

The referendum is being held alongside elections for the devolved national assemblies of Scotland, Wales and the North, plus for local authorities in England and the North.

Britain has only held one other nationwide referendum in recent times, when voters in 1975 backed the country’s continued membership of the European Economic Community, now the European Union.

A Guardian/ICM poll yesterday predicted a 68% “No” vote with just 32% in favour of AV. A YouGov poll in The Sun forecast 60% “No” and 40% “Yes”.

Writing in the Daily Mail, Cameron urged voters to keep the current system.

“It is a vital day for our democracy. We mustn’t sleepwalk into a second rate voting system that damages our democracy permanently. So I urge you to say ?No? to AV,” Cameron wrote.