VICTORIA -- Fair Voting BC director Julian West is joining an international team which will observe next week's elections in London and Scotland. Both jurisdictions use proportional representation in their elections.

The team involves journalists, academics and voting reform advocates from the United States, Canada and New Zealand. West is the only Canadian making the trip.

In a busy agenda, the group will meet with British parliamentarians and members of the English boundaries commission, as well as election officials and local voting reform advocates.

West is particularly interested that Scotland has recently adopted the single transferable vote (STV) for local councils. This is the same system which British Columbians endorsed by a vote of 58% to 42% in 2005. A second referendum is now scheduled for May 2009 because the BC government opted not to be bound by the referendum result unless the majority reached 60%, yet could not ignore this strong expression of popular support for electoral reform.

Scotland joins a growing list of countries where STV is used at the national, provincial or district levels: Ireland, Northern Ireland, Australia, Malta, New Zealand and the USA.

"This will be a great opportunity to see how the Scottish government is educating the public about how STV and other proportional representation systems work," West said. "They have created and funded a politically neutral public information campaign featuring an interactive website and are working with community groups, organisations, companies and

charities across Scotland in a creative public information drive. We call on the BC government to follow their example in ensuring that BC voters are well prepared for the 2009 referendum."

The elections will be held on Thursday, May 3rd.

Contacts: Julian West

+44-789-690-5019

Bruce Hallsor

President, Fair Voting BC

250-888-7846