I am baffled by the Conservative party’s electoral procedures for its next leader. It appears to be conducting a number of ballots, eliminating the candidates with the fewest votes and allowing their supporters to switch to one of the other MPs left in the race.
Surely this way madness lies? The party has clearly stated in the past that the way to do this sort of thing is to have all the candidates listed on a form and simply put a cross by the one you want. Then the one with the most crosses wins – otherwise you get “perverse” results like the one who came second in the first vote winning. Imagine.
If the Tories insist on this foolishness, though, I do have an idea for them. They could rank their choices on the ballot paper in order – first, second, third and so on – and the elimination and redistribution process could all take place in one voting procedure. But then what would we do for news copy?
Alan Rose
Brighton, East Sussex
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