The Special Committee for Electoral Reform has presented its recommendation for changes to the electoral system for the Tepertopian Assembly today. The cross-party committee was formed after the exceptionally long counting process in the 2024 election. A record number of candidates standing significantly split the first-preference vote, necessitating many additional rounds of vote transfers under the Single Transferable Vote system.
Mainly, the committee recommends to blanket-eliminate candidates with very low totals of first-preference votes after the first round of counting. As cut-off, the committee suggests 10% of one full vote quota – the number of votes necessary to guarantee winning a seat. Furthermore, the committee proposes technical changes that would allow breaking up the two largest constituencies, currently electing 10 and 9 seats respectively.
A matching bill has been jointly submitted by the Assemblypeople who sat on the committee.