The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 270 No 7243 p460
5 April 2003

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Winners and losers

In this year's Council elections (candidates are listed from p488 (PDF 145K)) members of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society will be able to vote using the "first past the post" system. This means that, with seven vacancies on the Council, members place crosses by up to seven names only — without indicating any preference. The seven candidates who receive most votes will be the winners. The question remains whether or not either the Society or democracy will, as a result, be the losers.

The decision to revert to the "first past the post" system was made by the Council in October last year (PJ, 12 October 2002, p545), after 25 years of using the single transferable vote system. It was made because motions had been carried at successive branch representatives' meetings, demanding a change to the system.

At the time, The Journal questioned this decision in an editorial comment (ibid, p512) and we make no bones about questioning it still. The disadvantages of the "first past the post" system can be seen simply by looking at Westminster. Notwithstanding the fact that many adults in the United Kingdom choose not to exercise their democratic rights and fail to vote in any election, the current Labour Party — holding over 400 seats in the House of Commons — is supported by just over 40 per cent of the electorate. The Liberal Democrats, supported by 19 per cent of the electorate, held 52 seats in the 2001 general election. If proportional representation were introduced (certainly favoured by the Liberal Democrats but, unsurprisingly, by neither the Labour nor Conservatives parties), the political landscape would look rather different.

In a sense, therefore, the "first past the post" system for Council elections is potentially threatening for the smaller groups in pharmacy. Although Council members are not there to represent factions in any way, but rather to represent the interests of the profession as a whole, it is important that all voices are heard on the Council. It is equally important for community pharmacists to vote for a hospital pharmacist or an industrial pharmacist as any number of community pharmacists, in order to ensure that Council decisions are fully informed.

Although the "first past the post" system appears superficially much more simple, let us hope that, if it does not deliver a balanced Council, it will be changed again promptly.

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