Nick Clegg will say the voting system is one of the reasons for “disillusionment” with politics Nick Clegg is to compare proposed changes to the system for electing MPs to giving women the vote and lowering the voting age to 18.
The Lib Dem leader will say arguments against the alternative vote (AV) will look as “nonsensical” in the future as those against female suffrage now do.
But one senior Labour politician said his reading of history was “dodgy” and the current first-past-the-post system had “stood the test of time”.
The referendum will be held on 5 May.
Voters will be asked whether to retain first-past-the-post or switch to the alternative vote – where voters can rank candidates in order of preference – in the UK-wide poll.
Putting the case for AV in a speech in London, Mr Clegg will say it is a “very British reform” and represents an “evolution” of the existing system.
Referring to the series of legislative steps which extended the voting franchise in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, he will say a switch to AV would fit into a pattern of constitutional change “by instalments”.
At the moment MPs are elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the candidate getting the most votes in a constituency is elected.
On 5 May all registered UK voters will be able to vote Yes or No on whether to change the way MPs are elected to the Alternative Vote system.
Under the Alternative Vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.
Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.
If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.
This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.
Q&A: alternative vote referendum AV poll: Where parties stand
Characterising the referendum debate as a battle between “reformers and conservatives”, he will compare warnings about the impact of the alternative vote on democracy with criticism of the decision to give women the vote and to reduce the voting age from 21 to 18.
“Time and time again, the conservative doomsayers were proved wrong,” he will say. “The same will be true of AV. The world will not stop turning on its axis when voters write 1, 2, 3 rather than an X on their ballot papers.
“I am certain that in years to come, the arguments being deployed against AV will seem as nonsensical as the ones that were used against allowing women to vote nearly 100 years ago and 18-year-olds the vote 42 years ago.
“It simply brings our system up to date.”
Mr Clegg will argue that those backing change – who include his party, Labour leader Ed Miliband, the Green Party, UKIP, Plaid Cymru and the SNP – represent a broader cross-section of the population than those supporting the status quo.
And he will accuse his coalition partners – who support first-past-the-post along with a number of prominent Labour MPs – of double standards, saying the Conservatives use a form of AV in elections for their leadership and to choose certain party candidates.
“It is common knowledge that David Cameron and I disagree about this,” he will say. “I find it astonishing that the Conservatives say AV is good enough for them but it is not good enough for the rest of the country,” he will say.
The Conservatives have said AV could produce unfair and perverse results and that it would threaten the principle of “one person one vote” which they argue is the cornerstone of democracy.
Mr Clegg was absent from a cross-party event last month urging a “yes” vote in the referendum, attended by Mr Miliband and prominent Lib Dem MPs.
Although the deputy prime minister was away on a trip to South America at the time, it was reported he had been asked to stay away amid tensions between him and Mr Miliband and fears that public anger with the Lib Dems over backing for spending cuts and tuition fees could endanger the pro-AV campaign.
Critics have attacked Mr Clegg’s support for AV after he described the electoral system as a “miserable little compromise” before entering government.
“The suffragettes fought for One Person, One Vote, not a political stitch-up like AV, which has been rejected by almost every country that has used it,” said Labour MP and former minister Caroline Flint, adding Mr Clegg’s “grasp of history” was “dodgy”.
“One Person, One Vote – the bedrock of our current system – has stood the test of time and remains the only way to ensure elections are fair.”
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