Sir, – Pat Carroll (October 21st) is correct that recent elections in other countries produced surprises. However, it should not be forgotten that the UK and Canada use the "first past the post" electoral system, which often produces anomalous results. In Canada, if share of the vote correlated directly with the number of seats won, the Liberals (with 39 per cent) would have fallen well short of a majority with about 125 seats, while the Conservatives (with 32 per cent) would have been not too far behind on 108. However, the actual outcome was an astonishing landslide victory of 184 seats to 99.
Meanwhile in the UK, the Conservative vote increased by just 0.8 per cent between the 2010 and 2015 elections, yet it won almost 10 per cent more seats in 2015.
An even more extreme example is the performance of the SNP – in 2010 it won 20 per cent of the vote in Scotland, but only 10 per cent of the seats, while in 2015, it won 93 per cent of the seats with just 50 per cent of the vote!
Due to the more sophisticated electoral system in Ireland, turnarounds of this magnitude are a lot less likely to occur. – Yours, etc,
JACK NORTHWOOD,
Victoria, Australia.