Latest vote failure triggers new call for STV in all Welsh council elections

Just in case there's anyone out there who hasn't yet worked out that the Welsh Labour government are collectively insane... https://news.sky.com/story/call-for-dog-free-areas-in-wales-to-tackle-racism-13253986

In the race to being the first leader of a country to restrict democracy we have Putin in the lead, Morgan second, with Trump expected to make a significant challenge.

'“This means that Wales risks repeating the farcical scenes seen at the 2022 local elections where over 100,000 people were denied a vote as only one candidate stood in their ward, meaning the election was decided before a vote was cast.' Not only the 2022 local government elections; there's a history of this in the county council elections in the rural ward in which I live, as with numbers of electoral wards in country areas across Wales. And it's long-standing: I recall the same situation when I was living in rural Powys in the '70s. In the election before last our ward was uncontested, with the result that the Conservative candidate was automatically returned. However only a few days after the election he announced that he intended to sit as an independent. Apparently this was a consequence of a dispute which he was having with the Welsh Conservatives, but he told me that he was retaining his membership of the UK-wide Conservative party. The consequence was that the Welsh Conservatives stood a candidate against him at the subsequent country council election, but again no one else entered the contest. With the result that my sole choice on election day was between two Conservatives - one 'official' and the other 'unofficial'. In a functioning democracy that's really not how it ought to be! So I spoiled my ballot paper.

STV would only marginally improve things, logically the merged wards would have to be a maximum of 4-5 councillors, any more (assuming enough people stand that there is actually a choice then the count would probably take weeks, rather than the 4-7 days it usually takes in places that use STV), we already have many wards where 2 or more councillors are elected, these also often have insufficient candidates, given 2 adjoining wards with 4 seats that had 4 candidates under the old system, why would there suddenly be an adequate choice of candidates standing where only 4 could be bothered the last time? It's not a solution, in the sense that it is better is only by a tiny increment... As usual it demonstrates the reluctance of (Labour) government in Wales to make any genuinely democratic reforms, every time they get dragged in to making the least effective smallest possible moves after decades of kicking and screaming, I'm still waiting for the implementation of (almost any) one of the many proposals for local/regional government reforms... Strong regional councils elected under full list PR are the only logical solution, this has been recommended time after time often by a commission (cleverly) timed to report just after Senedd elections, though it backfired when the 2015 election was delayed, all was going well until the election was done, then we heard the plan was to be completely ignored, in essence they pretended to take the report seriously because it had entered the news cycle before the election, only to bin it the day after they won... It's an absolute disgrace, we are never going to able to properly tackle the many problems we have without effective government... Just look at this... Did you even know there are (4) 'Joint corporate committees' "These are considered to be "local government" by the Welsh Government"... Did you know there are (currently 15 though the number is apparently variable) 'Public Service boards' "Other regional partnerships include regional economic boards (for city/growth deals or Ambition boards), Regional Partnership Boards, Adults' and Children's Safeguarding Partnerships, Community Safety Partnerships, Public Service Boards, Regional Housing Support Collaborative Groups and Area Planning Boards"... It is an absolutely insane mess, and government is pratting about with the tiniest possible reform with legislation designed to make sure it does not happen... From 730(ish, no one even knows exactly how many) 'community councils' to 2 'Trunk Road Agents'... About the only thing we don't have is a 'Partridge in a pear tree'...

What about STV for the Senedd? Instead Labour intend to foist on us the ‘Closed List’, where a list of members CHOSEN ONLY BY THE PARTIES THEMSELVES will be offered up for a vote. You cannot say to WHOM you want you vote to go, only WHICH PARTY you want to support. STV will ensure you vote for a PERSON not a PARTY SYMBOL.

The real stumbling block is the Welsh Labour Party. Its not in their interest to get rid of FPTP. I remember shortly after the AV referendum Peter Hain tried to argue that the no vote was a mandate for the Welsh Assembly (as it was called then) be elected entirely by FPTP - In other words a Labour one party state. The opposition parties need to play hardball here, and insist that STV is rolled out across Wales, no exceptions. The Lib Dems achieved this in Scotland when they went into coalition with Labour in the 2000s.

Have STV but only single member electorates. You don't need multi-member electorates. With STV sinvngle meber events will then still have contested elections as more will stand - and the most popular candidate would win. Multi member STV is really a backdoor proportional representation move which will mean all councils end up being clumsy coalition ruling groups.

The only reason that politicians in power change a voting system is to ensure they have an advantage in the next elections. I CAN VOTE, I WON'T VOTE.