Should FPTP, First-Past-The-Post, be re-named as Fake Post-Truth Polling? After all, there is no post! To win a two-candidate contest requires 50% + 1 of the valid vote. With ten or more candidates, success could depend on just 10% + 1, and the world record is held by Papua New Guinea where a candidate was elected by less than 5%. So maybe 95% thought this ‘winner' was the worst! In a word, FPTP can be hopelessly inaccurate. So the sensible folk in PNG have now changed their electoral system to a form of preferential voting. Would that the UK system was also fair. (Published in local NI media.)
Article originally appeared on After Jean-Charles de Borda, 1733-99 (http://www.deborda.org/).
See website for complete article licensing information.