Rejecting reform

Britons have roundly rejected a change to the UK electoral system in a nationwide referendum, opting to stick with the traditional first-past-the-post model.

The proposed switch to the alternative vote (AV) model, a form of proportional representation, was rejected by a projected 69 percent of voters, against 31 percent in favor, the Electoral Commission said late Friday.

Vote counting was expected to continue for some time, but more than 9.8 million "No" votes had already been registered, the Commission said, surpassing the 50-percent threshold needed to make a "Yes" win impossible.

Under first-past-the-post, voters cast one vote in their constituencies for the candidate they want to send to Westminster. The candidate with the most votes wins.

Proponents of the AV system, also known as instant-runoff voting, argued the current system can be unfair because it allows MPs to be elected even if the majority of votes are split among other candidates.

Under AV, voters would have ranked prospective candidates in order of preference; if no one immediately won 50 percent of votes, the least popular candidate would be eliminated and their votes redistributed among voters' second preferences until someone did reach 50 percent.

Lib Dem defeat

The referendum was held at the request of UK junior coalition partners, the Liberal Democrats, who last year made it a condition of forming the ruling government with the Conservatives. The Conservatives under Prime Minister David Cameron campaigned against electoral change, however.

AV supporters hoped changing the electoral system would benefit smaller parties like the Lib Dems.

Lib Dem leader, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, described the convincing loss as a "bitter blow" for all Britons who sought political change.

"I wish I could say this was a photo finish but it isn't, the result is very clear. I'm a passionate supporter of political reform but when the answer is as clear as this, you have got to accept it," Clegg said.

The defeat came as the party also suffered big losses in English local elections.

Clegg said his party had taken the brunt of the blame for public spending cuts introduced by the coalition to rein in Britain's record deficit but insisted the Lib Dems would soldier on in the coalition.

"We've clearly had bad results overnight, and we now need to learn the lessons, get up, dust ourselves down and move on," he said.

Author: Darren Mara (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: David Levitz