INSIGHT: An electoral revolution will come to East Lancashire on Thursday when the so called proportional representation system of voting will be used for the European elections. So what is proportional representation and what differences will voters in the area notice? PAUL SMITH investigates.

VOTERS in East Lancashire are to be presented with a whole new method of voting when European elections take place on Thursday.

Instead of voting for specific candidates for a defined constituency - such as Lancashire South or Lancashire Central - voters from the area will vote for candidates who will represent the electorate across the North West.

Ten members of the European Parliament will be elected by voters from the North West using the proportional representation system of voting, rather than the first past the post system which East Lancashire voters are accustomed to from local and general elections.

Each of the major political parties - Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat - will field 10 candidates of their own, while the Green Party, the UK Independence Party and others will also be on the ballot paper.

But voters will not be presented with the individual names of those candidates. Instead they will see the name of the political party on their ballot paper and be asked to vote for the party of their choice.

Each party will have ranked its ten candidates before the election, with the first candidate the one party bosses would most like to see elected. The number of seats allocated to each party will be based on a calculation which takes into account the proportion of votes each party has accumulated as part of the overall number of votes.

So if the people of the North West give one of the parties 35 per cent of the vote, they are likely to be awarded three of the ten seats on offer in the region. That party will then award the three seats won to the top three ranked candidates party bosses chose before the polls open.

There is, however, one exception to the rule on parties rather than individuals appearing on the ballot paper.

Independent candidates, not linked to any political party, will be able to stand individually. So the ballot paper East Lancashire voters will be presented with will contain both the names of the main parties and the names of individuals.

Former Mayor of Blackburn and Darwen, Coun Peter Greenwood, has criticised the new system, saying it means the people of East Lancashire will have not a direct link between an East Lancashire representative in Europe and the people of the area.

He said: "I am sure the people standing in the North West are all well qualified and will do their best.

"But East Lancashire has its own particular problems and needs and I am not sure this system takes that into account.

"I believe we may lose out to the big conurbations in the North West, Manchester and Merseyside, if East Lancashire loses its own voice.

"Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have all moved toward devolution and I believe the same should happen in the North West. But East Lancashire has its own case to make as a sub region." Ribble Valley MP Nigel Evans is also against the new system describing it as "an undemocratic farce created by a Labour government intent on taking power away from the people and giving it to party stooges."

Home Secretary and Blackburn MP Jack Straw is more enthusiastic.

He said: "The new voting systems for these elections will help ensure that the numbers of MEPs elected for each party matches more closely the number of votes cast for each party.

"The voting system is much simpler than other proportional systems, it's still a case of marking your X beside your choice. By introducing it we should ensure that all sections of society are represented in the European Parliament."

Polls open on Thursday, June 10 at 7am and close at 10pm. The votes will then be collected and verified on the basis of UK parliamentary constituencies - Blackburn, Rossendale and Darwen, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Hyndburn and Pendle in the case of East Lancashire.

Those votes will then be taken to Liverpool where they will be counted along with votes from elsewhere in the North West region, which runs from the Scottish borders all the way down to the Cheshire and Staffordshire border.

But the count will not take place until Sunday, June 13, because several other European countries do not vote until the Sunday.

The Republic of Ireland votes on Friday, June 11 and only Holland and Denmark joins the UK in voting on June 10.

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