B British Columbians won’t be using a new voting system for the next provincial election after voters rejected a switch to a proportional representation (PR) by 61.3%.
Of 3,297,395 registered voters, 1.430,358 voted. Of those, 38.7% approved electoral change, said Chief Electoral Officer Anton Boegman.
As a result, B.C. will continue to use the current first-past-the-post voting system.
Of votes to change to a PR system, 41.24 % supported mixed member proportional (MMP), 29.45% supported dual member proportional (DMP) and 29.51% chose urban rural proportional RUP).
A decision either way in the binding referendum required 50% plus one to pass.
Both NDP Premier John Horgan and BC Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver expressed disappointment at the vote.
“British Columbians have now spoken and chosen to stick with the current voting system,” Horgan said. “This referendum was held because we believe that this decision needed to be up to people, not politicians. While many people, myself included, are disappointed in the outcome, we respect people’s decision.”
Said Weaver, ““We campaigned on proportional representation because representative democracy is one of the 6 core principles of the B.C. Green Party.”
“We will continue to champion policies that will strengthen B.C’s democracy and make it more responsive to and representative of the people of B.C.,” Weaver said.
A total of 1,391,423 ballots were returned. There were 1,378,753 valid votes for Question 1 on whether or not to change from FTPT and 831,760 valid votes for Question 2 where voters had to choose between the three PR choices. Some 2,461 ballots were rejected.
None of the proportional representation voting systems won more than 50% in the first round of counting of all three choices.
With the fewest votes, RUP was eliminated and its votes transferred to voters’ second preferences.
In the second round of counting, MMP received a majority of votes among the choices for PR systems, with 63.05% (491,630) of the continuing ballots.
