The Single Transferable Vote (STV) system, part of the whole
proportional representation issue, is used in Irish Republic and
Northern Ireland Assembly elections but is not part of the
British electoral system which at a national level remains based
on First-Past-The-Post. STV is a complicated system.
Constituencies return a set number of ‘winners’. Usually this is
in the region of 3 to 4. A party for an election can put forward
as many candidates as it likes for a constituency as long as it
does not exceed the maximum set i.e. it can’t go above 4 for a
constituency if this is the figure set. Voters have as many
votes as there are candidates and they place their votes in
order of preference. Voters can vote for candidates from other
parties and they can decide their own order of preference. Seats
in a constituency are awarded in proportion to votes cast, with
second, third and other preferences of the voters taken into
account. Voters have huge choice under this system. It can
favour independent candidates. S