2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum information
2011 referendum in the UK on reforming the voting system
United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum
5 May 2011 (2011-05-05)
At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?
Results
Choice
Votes
%
Yes
6,152,607
32.10%
No
13,013,123
67.90%
Valid votes
19,165,730
99.41%
Invalid or blank votes
113,292
0.59%
Total votes
19,279,022
100.00%
Registered voters/turnout
45,684,501
42.2%
Results by local voting area No: 50–55% 55–60% 60–65% 65–70% 70–75% 75–80% Yes: 50–55% 55–60% 60–65%
National and regional referendums held within the United Kingdom and its constituent countries
Northern Ireland border poll
1973
EC membership referendum
1975
Scottish devolution referendum
1979
Welsh devolution referendum
1979
Scottish devolution referendum
1997
Welsh devolution referendum
1997
Greater London Authority referendum
1998
NI Good Friday Agreement referendum
1998
NE England devolution referendum
2004
Welsh devolution referendum
2011
Alternative Vote referendum
2011
Scottish independence referendum
2014
EU membership referendum
2016
* UK-wide referendums in bold
v
t
e
Results, Greater London UK district
The United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, also known as the UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system was held on Thursday 5 May 2011 (the same date as local elections in many areas) in the United Kingdom (UK) to choose the method of electing MPs at subsequent general elections. It occurred as a provision of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement drawn up in 2010 (after a general election that had resulted in the first hung parliament since February 1974) and also indirectly in the aftermath of the 2009 expenses scandal. It operated under the provisions of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 and was the first national referendum to be held under provisions laid out in the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000.
The referendum concerned whether to replace the present "first-past-the-post" system with the "alternative vote" (AV) method and was the first national referendum to be held across the whole of the United Kingdom in the twenty-first century. The proposal to introduce AV was rejected by 67.9% of voters on a national turnout of 42%.
This was only the second UK-wide referendum to be held (the first was the EC referendum in 1975) and the first such to be overseen by the Electoral Commission. It is to date the only UK-wide referendum to be held on an issue not related to the European Communities or the European Union, and is also the first to have been not merely consultative: it committed the government to give effect to its decision.[1]
All registered electors over 18 (British, Irish and Commonwealth citizens living in the UK and enrolled British citizens living outside)[2] – including members of the House of Lords (who cannot vote in UK general elections) – were entitled to take part.
On a turnout of 42.2 percent, 68 percent voted 'No' and 32 percent voted 'Yes'. Ten of the 440 local voting areas recorded 'Yes' votes above 50 per cent: four were Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh Central and Glasgow Kelvin, with the remaining six being in London.[3]
^"Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011: Section 8". www.legislation.gov.uk. Retrieved 6 December 2016.
^"Local elections and Referendum" (PDF). Electoral Commission. 2011. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2011. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
^"Parliamentary Voting Systems and Constituencies Act 2011, Section 2(1)(b)". Legislation.gov.uk. 13 April 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2011.
and 24 Related for: 2011 United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum information
UnitedKingdomAlternativeVotereferendum, also known as the UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system was held on Thursday 5 May 2011 (the...
In the UnitedKingdom, the AlternativeVotereferendum also known as the UK-wide referendum on the Parliamentary voting system was a referendum that took...
Referendums in the UnitedKingdom are occasionally held at a national, regional or local level. Historically, national referendums are rare due to the...
Kingdom that made provision for the holding of a referendum on whether to introduce the AlternativeVote system in all future general elections to the UK...
United Kingdom European Communities membership referendumUnitedKingdom European Constitution referendum (proposed) 2011UnitedKingdomAlternativeVote referendum...
The alternativevote plus (AV+), or alternativevote top-up, is a semi-proportional voting system. AV+ was devised by the 1998 Jenkins Commission which...
On 23 June 2016, a referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, took place in the UnitedKingdom (UK) and Gibraltar...
parliament. 2011 United KingdomAlternativeVotereferendum: Voters reject proposals to introduce the alternativevoting system in the UK. 2011 Leicester South...
reform after the election. It took a leading role in the 2011referendum on the AlternativeVote, pushing AV as better than the existing first past the...
United Kingdom AlternativeVotereferendum#Results by constituent countries 2016 UnitedKingdom European Union membership referendum#Results by constituent...
A referendum on Scottish independence from the UnitedKingdom was held in Scotland on 18 September 2014. The referendum question was, "Should Scotland...
The result in favour of Brexit of the 2016 UnitedKingdom European Union membership referendum is one of the most significant political events for Britain...
The UnitedKingdom European Communities membership referendum, also known variously as the Referendum on the European Community (Common Market), the Common...
candidates, although this system was rejected in a 2011UnitedKingdomAlternativeVotereferendum staged by the Cameron-Clegg coalition. In the European...
coalition government agreed to hold a referendum on voting reform. The AlternativeVotereferendum took place on 5 May 2011; voters were given the choice of...
rights. On 7 February 2011, the referendum commission published the final results, with a landslide majority of 98.83% voting in favour of independence...
campaign in the UnitedKingdom whose purpose was to persuade the public to vote against the AlternativeVote (AV) in the referendum on 5 May 2011. The opposition...
only three votes against. Had the islanders rejected the continuation of their current status, a second referendum on possible alternatives would have...
prominent supporter of the NOtoAV campaign in the 2011UnitedKingdomAlternativeVotereferendum, in June 2013 Cracknell revealed his intention to stand...
Global Information
