Northern Ireland Euro elections..

[lovingboth]

.. have long been done by STV because the government wouldn't like the results if they used an inferior system.

But looking at the BBC page on the results (so far - they're still redistributing votes) I am struck by the fact that no party has more than one candidate. STV doesn't penalise you for having more, so why is everyone saying, in effect, 'there is no way we can get more than one MEP'?

Comments

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

The same thing happens with council elections there.

In theory STV doesn't penalise you, in practice it does, and they've all become adept at fielding (number of seats we might win) or (number of seats we might win)+1.

I think if I had to explain what I believe to be the logic of it in a sentence it's probably:

"STV elimination stages are by candidate not by party, and keeping your vote in fewer piles keeps you in the game longer".

It shouldn't but vote bleed away to other parties or to no further preferences is probably just enough to make it worthwhile.

For the euro elections I get the impression the NI electorate is so stratified that the whole thing is more like three FPTP seats - one seat where the only candidates are Sinn Fein, SDLP, Alliance and Greens, one where it's only DUP, TUV and maybe NI21, and one where it's only UUP, DUP, Alliance and Greens.

[lovingboth]

I remember the days when it was Ian Paisley + another Unionist + someone else, and certainly the two main Unionist parties ran more than one candidate: the DUP because Paisley had such a massive majority that they might get two and the UU because the DUP did!

[softfruit.livejournal.com]

"we can't let those bastards have the only candidate who's going to lose! we want a candidate who's going to lose too!" :)