U.K. Looks Set to Delay Changes in Parliamentary Voting System London, Oct. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. politicians will be handed a report this week calling for changes to the country's voting system, but the indications are that the government is in no hurry to implement them. The report is the result of a 10-month study ordered by Prime Minister Tony Blair under former minority opposition Liberal Democrat leader Lord Roy Jenkins and reports say it will call for the present winner-takes-all system to be replaced by a partly proportional representation one, which Jenkins has long advocated. A pledge to hold a referendum on the issue was contained in the ruling Labour party's election pledge for the May 1997 general election which brought it to power with a huge 179-seat overall majority in the 659-seat House of Commons. Proponents of change assumed the pledge was for a referendum in the current parliament but last week leader of the House of Commons Margaret Beckett told legislators that it wouldn't necessarily be held before the next general election which could be as late as the summer of 2002. At Labour's annual conference last month Blair said he was ``not persuaded'' of the case for change and in the past he's said he shares worries about a system which gives too much power to minority parties and which makes the formation of a strong government more difficult, the so-called ``tail wagging the dog'' argument. Members of Blair's Cabinet are publicly divided on the issue, and in the past Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and Home Secretary Jack Straw have all said they want to keep the present one- constituency, one-member system for elections to the Westminster parliament. Against them are Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam. The main opposition Conservative party is united against any change. Part-proportional systems are already in place for elections to the European parliament and to the new assemblies planned for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Jenkins report will be published Thursday this week. 06:20:25 10/25/1998
