Under the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill, a referendum on whether to replace first past the post with the AV system would be held on 5 May 2011 next year.
The South East, like the country as a whole, voted overwhelmingly ' No' to changing the voting system from the current first-past-the-post system to the alternative vote.
BBC: Labour's big push in the South East reaps mixed results
The Conservatives vehemently oppose the alternative vote, arguing that the current first past the post voting system "delivers clear, clean results" even if it does currently seem to work against them.
Both are hopeful of winning their first ever seats in the House of Commons, although the UK's first-past-the-post system works against them.
Secondly, the first-past-the-post system exaggerates the advantage of the winning party, particularly at the expense of third parties.
In short, stable majorities are harder to establish (a coalition even runs Britain, where the first-past-the-post system is designed for single-party government).
In that Today interview he said UKIP did not have any MPs because "the first-past-the-post system is brutal to a party like us".
As well as assembly seats, people have also voted on whether to replace the first-past-the-post system for electing Westminster MPs with the alternative vote (AV).
The Conservatives agreed to a referendum over whether to replace the first-past-the-post system for electing MPs with the alternative vote (AV) as part of their coalition negotiations.
BBC: Referendum on voting system goes ahead after Lords vote
That nothing changes but if change is a must, a move to 30 seats to match future Westminster seats with two AMs elected in each, both via the first-past-the-post system.
Gerrard Batten, UKIP MEP for London, said UKIP's performance on Thursday had "broken the psychological barrier with the electorate", as voters now believed a vote for UKIP could count in the first-past-the-post system.
Under the other option, the boundaries would be changed so that they're co-terminous with the Westminster seats, 30 AMs would be elected via the first-past-the-post system in a specific constituency, while another 30 would be elected via the list system.
In the last one its share of the vote was only three points higher than the Tories', but the first-past-the-post system, and the less-even distribution of Conservative voters, translated this slender preference into 356 seats in the 646-member House of Commons.
The public will be asked whether they want to replace the existing first-past-the-post system for electing MPs to Westminster with a method known as the alternative vote (AV).
MPs believe that it would ruin the quasi-mystical relationship between a member of Parliament and his or her individual constituency, which is the only thing voters like about the existing first-past-the-post system.
MPs are currently debating legislation required to pave the way for a referendum on the way they are elected and whether to change the current first-past-the-post system in favour of an Alternative Vote method.
BBC: Ministers under fire over consultation on AV referendum
At the conclusion of the debate on his amendment, Mr Chope, a supporter of the current first-past-the-post system, did not force a vote on the matter, but gave notice that he might re-visit it during later stages of the bill.
Little wonder that many senior members of Mr Blair's cabinet, including John Prescott, the deputy prime minister, Gordon Brown, the chancellor and Jack Straw, the home secretary, have let it be known that they would prefer to stick with the current first-past-the-post system.
Mr Johnson and Labour leader Ed Miliband are among Labour MPs backing a change to AV - but many heavyweight figures within the party, including former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, and most Conservatives, are campaigning to keep the current first-past-the-post system for Westminster elections.
The one big idea that looms is that of electoral reform, but it is hardly new: the Liberal Democrats, the keenest advocates (and principal beneficiaries) of a change in the voting system, have been complaining about Britain's first-past-the-post system for years.
Under the current, first-past-the-post system, activists complain, Liberal Democrats win a smaller share of parliamentary seats than their share of the vote.
The voting system is highly complex, with two-thirds of the 498 elected seats being decided by proportional representation and the rest by a first-past-the-post system.
Over half the people polled favoured a first-past-the-post system.
Countries considering changing their first-past-the post system had been alarmed by the results of the New Zealand experiment.
But the first-past-the-post voting system for MPs is a huge obstacle for any small party.
But had it not been for the peculiarities of the first-past-the-post voting system, it would have won more.
In future, if the first-past-the-post electoral system is replaced by a more proportional system, such powers may become more important.
Aided by the first-past-the-post electoral system as used in Britain and the United States the voters four years ago produced the biggest turnaround in parliamentary history.
On Wednesday Mr Brown set out some of his intentions for constitutional reform - which included looking at whether Britain should change the first-past-the-post electoral system and reforming the House of Lords - both of which would be unlikely to change before next election.
If the coalition works, voters may warm to the idea of power-sharing, and to the proportional voting systems that inevitably give rise to it. (A referendum on the alternative-vote electoral model, which the Lib Dems prefer over Westminster's first-past-the-post system, is part of the deal.) And the Lib Dems got all this despite flopping at the polls.
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