Madam, – It was greatly refreshing to see the beginning of an open and fair debate upon the referendum (Editorial, April 28th). Referendums come infrequently in Northern Ireland, and I have been astounded by the lack of coverage in much of the media on the actual issues.
Voting Yes! to the Alternative Vote seems to be a step forward for democracy in the North. It provides a fairer electoral system, and really is as simple as 1,2,3, as we are already comfortable with ranking preferences for our Assembly elections.
First Past the Post (FPTP) is an archaic system, which produces results such as Willie McCrea “winning” his seat in Westminster in 2010 with just one third of the vote. I want my politician to work for my vote, I want him or her to achieve at least 50 per cent support of the constituents, rendering my politician more representative of my region.
Thank you for covering the real issues at stake, and on May 5th I will be voting Yes! to a fairer system. – Yours, etc,