STV and gender balance: if it’s good enough for MPs…

Last week I pointed out that AV is being used for both the Labour leadership contest and for the election of select committee chairs in the Commons, which could make for the fun sight of Labour MPs who have happily used it in both those contests then turning round and explaining how they think it’s really a terrible system for the public to use.

What I missed then is that the election for the Commons Deputy Speakers will also see two features in use because MPs have adopted them but which I suspect a fair few MPs will happily argue shouldn’t be used in elections that the public get to vote in. These two are STV (the Deputy Speakers are elected in one contest, so it’s like a multi-member STV constituency) and also gender balance (of the three at least one must be male and at least one must be female).

Remarkable really what voting arrangements some MPs will back – as long as it’s not for elections the public get to vote in.