This was rejected by two-to-one.
Herald System 3 poll, 8 th March 2000.
| 'We get better local government when one party gets a large majority of
the seats, even if it does not have a large majority of the votes.' This was rejected by two-to-one. Herald System 3 poll, 8 th March 2000. | |
The result will test the partnership agreement between Labour and the Liberal Democrats. Coming virtually on the eve of Labour's Scottish conference, it will also spark a debate about the willingness of the party's hierarchy to stand up to its councillors for the sake of the Holyrood coalition.
The society commissioned Herald pollsters System Three to conduct the survey on the back of our recent monthly sample of more than a thousand voters across 40 Scottish constituencies, finding a majority in favour of PR running at a ratio of almost six-to-one.
They found that 70% supported the principle of a fairer voting system, while only 12% disagreed, with 18% undecided. From the point of view of the ERS the good news was that this level of public support for PR was constant across the political spectrum.
The McIntosh Report recommended the adoption of PR for local government elections, and the coalition deal at Holyrood between Labour and the Lib Dems appeared to support this. However, with a new study by academic Richard Kerley looking at how to take forward the McIntosh recommendations, there has been a backlash among those who run Labour's local authority fiefdoms and a suspicion that a process of backsliding is under way.
It was against this backdrop that the ERS decided to test public perception. It commissioned System Three, asking respondents to agree or disagree with the statement: "Local councils would be more representative of the interests of local communities if the share of seats won by the parties broadly reflected their share of the votes."
It also gained heavy support on another question: "A voting system which encourages councillors of different parties to co-operate more is likely to lead to better local government." The plus factor here was more than seven-to-one with 75% agreeing and only 10% disagreeing.
The society also made a point of asking a similar question from the opposite perspective, to ensure it was not simply a false reading by securing positive assent. "We get better local government when one party gets a large majority of the seats, even if it does not have a large majority of the votes." This was rejected by two-to-one.
Generally, support for PR was stronger among men than women, older rather than younger voters, and among Lib-Dem voters (81%) and Nationalists (74%) than Labour and Tories.
ERS chief executive Ken Ritchie said: "The Scottish Parliament will shortly be asked to consider whether to move to a fairer voting system for local government. This poll clearly shows that the people of Scotland are in favour of change by a very large majority."
The problem is that when the Scottish Parliament's local government committee has gone in search of support for PR in Labour's heartland there has been a strong rebuff. The committee yesterday heard feedback to two such evidence-gathering sessions in North and South Lanarkshire: councillors there were clearly determined to resist the change.
South Lanarkshire dubbed the "recent experience of PR in Scotland and the UK less than satisfactory". In North Lanarkshire the SNP complained about 30% of the votes bringing it only 17% of the seats, but the Labour leader "did not agree with any change in the voting system".
The coalition deal between Labour and the Lib Dems spoke about McIntosh in terms of "an immediate programme of change, including progress on electoral reform".
Lib-Dem local government spokesman Donald Gorrie said last night: "Labour councillors have been running things with huge majorities for years and don't see why that should not continue, but with this evidence we can now question whether Labour and the Tories are in touch with their supporters on this." - March 8 th 2000
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