On May 23rd 2019, just 21 days after the local elections across the UK, the people of Britain will once again be asked to return to the polling stations to vote in the EU Elections. Now I do fully understand that many people believe there is no point in voting after the Government and Parliament have totally ignored the crucial vote of June 23rd 2016, the EU Referendum but I implore everyone to get out there and vote. This vote is not about which party you think is better or whether you think we should Remain or Leave the EU (Though the end result will be used to evaluate that), on May 23rd 2019 you will be going out to vote for Democracy!

I have been a stanch Brexiteer for over a decade and I will continue to be so until we finally free ourselves of the constraints of the EU, so this is predominantly written for the 17.4 million Leave voters in the UK but I do hope that Remainers also take the time to read what I have to say and then think carefully about how they vote. After all, Remainers have been constantly demanding another EU Referendum and the outcome of the EU elections will certainly be looked upon to see how an EU Referendum could possibly turn out and that is why it is imperative for people to vote.

I see a lot of senseless bickering going on between UKIP and The Brexit party and for me that only shows the political incompetence of both parties. This is because the EU Elections are run on Proportional Representation (PR) and those that keep shouting about vote splitting, simply do not have any idea that PR is, in fact, a vote splitting system and so having two Pro-Brexit parties is actually better than having just one. It should be Nigel Farage and Gerard Batten explaining this to you but for whatever reason, they are certainly not doing so. 

How does the PR system work?

Well let us take a look at the last EU Election of 2014, UKIP won by garnering 4.4 million votes and they gained 24 MEP seats in the EU Parliament. Labour came second with 4 million votes and they gained 20 MEP seats. So in 2014, 1st and 2nd place in a PR vote gained 44 MEP seats. 

In PR once the voting is over each party/independent total votes are totalled and the one with the highest number of votes is awarded one MEP, then their total number of votes is divided by 1 plus the number of MEPs they have. UKIP had the highest with 4.4 million so they gained the first MEP, then their total was divided by 2 (1+1 MEP) so that their total number of votes then became 2.2 million. The list is looked at again and the highest number is awarded an MEP, that would have been Labour, so their total of 4 million would then also be divided by 2 (1+1 MEP), then leaving them with 2 million. Then the one with the highest number of votes was Conservatives with 3.8 million, so they were awarded 1 MEP and the same process applied to halve their total to 1.9 million. 

As the Green Party came 4th with 1.2 million it meant that UKIP was then the highest again so they gained a 2nd MEP and then their 2 million votes were then divided by 3 (1+2 MEPs) and the process was continued until all 73 UK MEPs were elected.

So as you can see PR splits the votes automatically with every MEP elected, so having UKIP and The Brexit Party standing is a good thing and they will certainly not be splitting each other’s vote and if they are placed 1st and 2nd in EU 2019, that will, in fact. return more Pro-Brexit MEPs than any single party could actually achieve. Why both parties have not fully explained this is beyond belief really but hopefully, this article will get shared by many to fully explain the process properly and why it is actually better to have two Pro-Brexit parties rather than just one.