NEARLY 80 per cent of all votes in the South East including Hampshire had no impact on the election result according to new analysis by the Electoral Reform Society.

The Society has calculated that 3.5m or 79 per cent votes in the region were ‘wasted’ under the current voting system, with 79% of votes going to losing candidates or being ‘surplus’ to what was needed to elect the MP.

Its findings revealed that 2.1m votes in the South East went to losing candidates while 33 of 84 MPs failed to win the support of 50 per cent of voters locally.The research also saw an estimate of 439,000 votes were cast ‘tactically’.

Chief Executive of the Electoral Reform Society, Katie Ghose said:“That three and a half million people’s votes in the South East were effectively wasted on May 7th is a shocking indictment of a voting system in crisis.

“Our winner-takes-all voting system means millions of people’s voices are being ignored, not just in the region but across the UK.”