PE1901: Replace the voting system for the Scottish Parliament with a more proportional alternative
Petition summary
Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to replace the broadly proportional, but flawed, Additional Member System used for electing MSPs with a more proportional alternative.
The Additional Member System results in more representative parliaments than First Past the Post used in Westminster but it is not fully proportional. It also results in two classes of MSPs, limits voter choice and can be exploited by decoy parties.
Alternatives such as the Single Transferable Vote or Open List Proportional Representation, would empower voters and lead to more representative parliaments.
Petitioner: Richard Wood
Status: Closed
Date published: 14 September 2021
Click here for the full petition
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee Consideration
SPICe briefing (133KB, pdf) posted 15 October 2021
Committee Meetings
17 November 2021: The Committee agreed to write to the Electoral Reform Society Scotland and the Electoral Commission.
Official Report of Meeting 17 November 2021
23 March 2022: The Committee agreed to close the petition under rule 15.7 of Standing Orders on the basis that the Scottish Government has stated that it does not currently have any plans to propose changes to the voting system by which MSPs are elected to the Scottish Parliament.
Official Report of Meeting 23 March 2022
Written submissions
PE1901/A: Scottish Government submission of 19 October 2021
PE1901/B: The Electoral Commission submission of 2 December 2021