Oxford Gets STV
The upcoming election for Chancellor is to be conducted using a new system. The traditional "first-past-the-post" method is to be scrapped in favour of the "single-transferable vote."
The late Roy Jenkins would have supported changing the nature of the election, as he was a lifelong supporter of electoral reform, however it has been suggested that Jenkins would have been defeated in 1987 if the University had made this change earlier. Jenkins won by fewer than six hundred votes in a turnout of 8,300 voters. This slender margin was achieved by splitting the Tory vote between Edward Heath and the right wing historian Lord Blake.
The extension of the electorate to include all graduates, coupled with the switch to STV has made the result of the upcoming election harder to predict.
23rd Jan 2003