How about adding the separate nonpartisan election of the executive branch ? P.R. will sort out in the House of Commons by itself. ------ UK politicians take sides on voting reform By Gerrard Raven LONDON, Oct 29 (Reuters) - A commission on Britain's voting system on Thursday proposed sweeping changes that could make coalition government more likely and give small parties greater representation in the House of Commons. Under the proposals, which would give Britain a semi-proportional system closer to that of most other European countries, the Labour party's landslide majority of 179 seats at the May 1997 election would have fallen to 77. Staking out their position ahead of an expected referendum on the issue, opponents of change denounced the proposal as likely to lead to weak coalition governments formed after behind-the-scenes political wheeling and dealing. But advocates of reform said the proposals by former finance minister Lord Roy Jenkins could transform British politics. ``For those committed to modernising politics, it is the only alternative,'' said Andrew Puddephatt, director of the Charter 88 campaign to reform Britain's constitution. Jenkins, a former Labour cabinet minister and now a Liberal Democrat member of the House of Lords, chaired a government-appointed committee to identify an electoral system to be pitted against Britain's current first-past-the post system in a referendum. His report proposed a hybrid in which 80-85 percent of the 659 members of parliament would continue to be elected for single member seats, although by a preferential system. Some 98 to 132 ``top-up'' seats would be allocated to make the overall election result within city or county boundaries more proportional in terms of votes cast for a party and seats won. The report said such a system would still have given one party a majority at three of the last four general elections. At the 1992 election, the Conservatives, who actually won a 21-seat majority, would have had 27 fewer mebers of parliament (MPs) than all the opposition parties combined. At last year's general election, Labour, with 44 percent of the votes, won 419 seats. The report estimated the proposed system would have reduced its tally to 368, with seats for the Liberals, who won 17 percent of the votes, rising to 89 from 46. Insisting that his proposals would reduce the unfairness of the present arrangements to smaller parties, Jenkins told a news conference: ``We are proposing a system that is right on its own merits and has a realistic chance of being carried into effect.'' The Jenkins commission was set up under an agreement between Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. Blair's pledge of a referendum during the current parliament is a cornerstone of the close relations between the two parties, which could quickly sour if he reneged on it. Blair said Jenkins had produced an ``excellent report'' which ``addresses some of the weaknesses of the present system.'' But the government showed no urgency about the plebiscite that Labour promised in its 1997 election manifesto. ``There is no need to rush on this at all,'' said Blair's chief spokesman. ``We always said we envisaged doing it this parliament, and that does remain an option.'' Ministers noted that the report says it would not be realistic to expect the new system to be in operation at a general election ``in much less than eight years.'' The opposition Conservatives and a group of over 100 Labour MPs immediately tried to rubbish Jenkins's report. ``The proposals will...lead to unstable government, add volatility to the electoral system and confuse the electorate,'' said Stuart Bell, leader of the Labour group opposed to change. 14:08 10-29-98
