click here to see Make Votes Count supporters at the vigil

click here to see Make Votes Count deputation to Downing Street

The deputation consisted of (from left to right) Jean Lambert Green MEP, Lord David Lipsey (Chair, Make Votes Count), Julia Goldsworthy Lib Dem MP,Richard Burden Labour MP, and Danny Alexander Lib Dem MP

They delivered the following letter:

Dear Tony Blair,
Nina Temple, the Director of Make Votes Count, wrote to you on 9th May to express that organisation's concerns about the way the government is conducting its promised review of voting systems. As supporters of electoral reform, we now write to add our voice to hers.
As Ms Temple argued in her letter, this election result highlighted the defects of our present electoral system. Turnout was deplorable. Two-thirds of MPs were backed by less than half those who voted and no MP got the support of half their electorate. Voters were forced to vote tactically rather than for the party they preferred. This has has led to widely differing interpretations of the election result and of the strength of mandate conferred by it.
Lord Falconer recently remarked that he was "not sure there is widespread discontent with the way the electoral system works.... and was not sure there is pressure for change." We find this comment difficult to reconcile with the contents of the national press, whose columns have been bursting with correspondence on the subject; or the airwaves, where for example a whole edition of Any Questions and the subsequent Any Answers was dominated by this subject; or the Grand Committee Room in the Commons on 11th May even more packed than for your meeting with the PLP with angry people from all parties.
You promised in the aftermath of the election that you would listen to the message of the people. We believe that this is something that all politicians should do. One way of demonstrating this would be to open up to public consultation the government's review of voting systems. We are concerned by rumours that the review is to be a low-key affair confined within government. We hope that this does not reflect the true position. We call on you to convert the review into an open review, looking at all the options for reform including preferential voting and top-up lists. Following the review, we look for a positive recommendation from the government to be put to the people in a referendum before this parliament is too far advanced.
We should of course be happy to meet to discuss any of this.
Yours sincerely,
David Lipsey (Chair, Make Votes Count)