ON MAY 5 there is scheduled to be a referendum on changing our voting system. The proposal is to abolish our traditional first-past-the-post system and replace it with another system called the Alternative Vote. I hope your readers will vote No.

The first-past-the-post system is easy to understand and produces clear results. You put a cross next to the candidate you want and the person with the most votes wins. Many parliaments across the world are modelled on the House of Commons.

Our democratic electoral system is aspired to, envied and copied in many countries.

By contrast, AV is used by just three out of 191 countries, one of which, Fiji, is in the process of dropping it. In another, Australia, more than half of Australians would support switching to a first-past-the-post voting system, according to a Newspoll.

"AV is a complicated and unfair system. Under AV, the great majority of voters (ie those who vote for either of the leading two candidates in a constituency) get only one vote, while those who back minority or fringe parties get several.

The difference it would make in the outcome of our elections is perverse. It would make indecisive election results, with hung parliaments more likely. This necessitates coalitions and parties negotiating over which of their manifesto pledges can be implemented.

On the other hand, AV can sometimes yield unfairly disproportional results. For example, Tony Blair's Commission on Electoral Reform, headed by Roy Jenkins, found it would have exaggerated the Labour landslide in 1997 and thus produced 'an even less proportional outcome'.

In terms of perverse results - when the party winning the most votes does not win the most seats - AV's track record in Australia is terrible, with three elections between 1969 and 1998 delivering a perverse result.

We do have some experience of the AV system in this country. It was the method Labour chose to elect its leader. David Miliband had more votes than any other candidate. But owing to transfers from the supporters of losing candidates, it was Ed Miliband who was declared the winner.

"You won the elections, but I won the count," remarked Anastazio Somoza, of Nicaragua in 1977. Ed could have said much the same to his big brother.

Our democratic system has been a gift to the world. We should not throw it away.

COUNCILLOR HARRY PHIBBS Ravenscourt Park ward

(Conservative)

Hammersmith Town Hall