AV vote was "bitter blow for people who believe in the need for political reform."

In just the second UK-wide referendum in history over the Alternative Vote, the UK voted overwhelmingly last May to reject changing the way MPs are elected - dealing a bitter blow to Nick Clegg on top of heavy Lib Dem poll losses. It was clear British voters chose to ignore process, wanting the government to focus on progress. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, and the Lib-Dems the strong supporters of electoral reform, also felt his side felt the wrath of voters' backlash of austerity measures. The BBC reported:



Officials say 19.1m people voted in the second UK-wide referendum in history - a higher than expected turnout of 41%.

The final result put the Yes vote at 32.1% and the No vote at 67.9%.

It comes as the Lib Dems suffered a rout in English local elections - and the SNP scored an historic victory in the Scottish Parliament poll.

A debate that was often about the complexity of electoral systems ended in the simplest of results.


The No campaign won, overwhelmingly.

The rush to attribute blame, or grab the credit for that result, begins here.

Those who favoured the Yes campaign will argue they were defeated by the Prime Minister's campaigning power, a largely hostile press and a tough opposing campaign.

Those who backed a No vote will say they won the argument for the merits of the status quo, and persuaded people the alternative vote was complex and unnecessary.

The voters, of course, needed only to mark crosses on ballot papers. They did not have to explain their reasoning.

So campaigners who devoted months of their lives to this argument will never know what difference, if any, they made to the result.

Read Ross's thoughts in full

Bitter blow for Clegg, Lib-Dems