Rev. 13 Dec 25
The UK is the union of four separate nations, and three of them have their own devolved national parliaments.
England itself has its business handled by the UK parliament, which sometimes causes confusion.
Scotland uses the Additional Member System (AMS) for elections to its devolved national parliament.
Wales. Elections to the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) are currently by AMS but from the election in May 2026 they will be by pure D’Hondt.
– Wales will have 16 constituencies. Each constituency will elect six Members to the Senedd.
– Everyone 16+ will now have one vote, choosing a political party or independent candidate.
– Anyone standing for election must live in Wales.
Northern Ireland. The Northern Ireland Assembly has 90 members elected in 18 five-member constituencies by the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.
UK. We are looking for a new electoral system for UK to replace its current FPTP system. But is there any reason to insist on having a uniform system for the whole UK? Would it not be more congenial to allow each of the four nations to choose what system to use for UK elections (AMS, D’Hondt or STV)? In which case it might choose to adopt the same system as it has for its national elections? That same freedom is exactly what the EU gives for elections to the European Parliament; which is why we were able to have our awful version of D’Hondt, with small constituencies.
In which case we might be looking for a replacement for FPTP in England only, leaving it to the devolved nations to “do their own thing”.