Celebrating the recent chastening of the Tories in the UK can easily overshadow broader, less complimentary views on its polling framework and the lamentable state of its democratic ethos.
Two notable records were shattered, both, however, reflecting critically on such political climate. Foremost, voter participation: merely over half (52%) of UK adults deemed it worth their while to cast a vote, marking the smallest proportion to do so since the advent of universal suffrage.
Secondly, reflecting voters’ true intent: this election was the least representative one ever held under the British first-past-the-post (FPTP) system.
Voting for the Reform group, which gathered approximately four million votes representing a 14% share of the total, resulted in just 1% of the seats in the Commons. In contrast, Labour, despite only scooping up 34% of the total votes, secured two-thirds of the available 650 seats, a figure twice what a balanced system would allow.
Diminishing electoral participation signifies waning public commitment to the voting process, a trend that should concern all advocates of democratic governance.
These aspects had significant impacts on the final outcome, with Labour skilfully manipulating the system to its benefit – entirely within the rules. By warding off many disenchanted Tories, still hesitant to align with Labour, from participating in the vote, Keir Starmer’s party amplified the division between the Reform and Tory right-wing votes, consequently ensuring the capture of seat after seat without achieving an outright majority.
The Guardian’s Zoe Williams observed that Labour’s strategy to reduce voter turnout further watered down its middling promises to voters: “Rather than presenting an appealing proposition to a voter burdened with student loans, struggling with rent, and primarily concerned about climate change, it seemed more vital to placate Tories to make them stay away from the polling stations”. This move resulted in significant disappointment amongst a vast portion of its own supporters.
Whether they prefer it or not, Labour, once in power, is bound to reassess electoral restructuring and proportional representation, which are backed by 85 per cent of the party members and almost half of the electorate. Their pledge to address decreasing voter participation by simplifying the registration process and reducing the voting age to 16 is unlikely to alleviate the widespread disillusionment with the electoral process. The implementation of a just voting system may be a solution, given the close relationship between the two concerns.
Participation rates reflect the public’s engagement with the voting procedure – its decline should alarm all representatives in a democracy. Laura Parker, from the non-governmental organisation Labour for a New Democracy, cautions: “It’s not possible to persistently deny countless individuals their democratic rights and expect them to simply disappear.”
In the absence of a balanced voting method, voters in Britain, akin to those in other parts of Europe, are exploring the influential potential of strategic voting.
This was manifestly noticeable in France’s parliamentary elections, where the resolve to prevent the far-right National Rally (RN), led to a 25% significant rise in voter participation, marking the highest level in two decades. Additionally, increased participation resulted in a wider choice of candidates, with three or four candidates unusually meeting the requirement to partake in the second round in over 300 constituencies.
The collaboration between the unified left-wing NFP and Emmanuel Macron’s central Ensemble in a basic form of strategic, preferential voting, contributed to an enhancement in their second-round votes by four and eight percentage points respectively. Meanwhile, the RN lost eight points, negating any likelihood of gaining a position in the government.
High voter participation has also played a critical role in other recent political contests. The second round of Iran’s presidential elections witnessed the low voter turnout of 39.8 per cent spike to 50 per cent as voters began to believe in the potential for transformation, culminating in the revolutionary triumph of reformist Masoud Pezeshkian.
This obligation of Labour to suppress voter turnout even weakens their not-so-progressive commitments to the electorate.
Last year in Poland, the highest voter turnout since 1919 of almost 74 per cent resulted in the electorate choosing a liberal democracy and a renewed connection with the European Union instead of the continuation of the eight-year authoritarian regime of the right-wing populist Law and Justice (PiS) party.
The recent elections appear to contest the consistent trend of declining voter participation observed since the 1990s in European polls, particularly in countries that were once under communist rule. “This anomalous trend is quite perplexing,” comments Roman Gabriel Olar, political scientist at DCU. “We would ordinarily predict that a shift towards democracy would inspire a surge in voter turnout. It seems plausible that citizens, who have longed to exercise their democratic rights amidst a lengthy era of political suppression, would naturally flock to the voting booths in large numbers.”
He highlights Tunisia, where following the overthrow of dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the first parliamentary election in 2011 saw a turnout of over 90 per cent. However, in only a decade of what has been termed as “democratic disillusionment,” this figure plummeted rapidly to merely 11 per cent.
Revitalising voter turnout, re-involving electorates with the democratic structure and reigniting their political proprietorship is an imperative task for all political leaders and undoubtedly achievable. “The clear-cut choice between autocratic rule and democracy seems to rouse voter interest, whereas everyday electoral politics could heighten voter indifference,” Olar notes.
Assure voters that there is more on the line than the customary ‘six of one and half a dozen of the other’, and they will come forward, as observed in countries like France, Iran, and Poland.