<P> In January 1931, the minority Labour government, then supported by the Liberals, introduced a Representation of the People Bill that included switching to AV . The Bill passed its second reading in the Commons by 295 votes to 230 on 3 February 1931 and the clause introducing AV was passed at committee stage by 277 to 251 . (The Speaker had refused to allow discussion of STV .) The Bill's second reading in the Lords followed in June, with an amendment replacing AV with STV in 100 constituencies being abandoned as outside the scope of the Bill . An amendment was passed by 80 votes to 29 limiting AV to constituencies in boroughs with populations over 200,000 . The Bill received its third reading in the Lords on 21 July, but the Labour government fell in August and the Bill was lost . </P> <P> Elections to the European Parliament in mainland Britain from their start in 1979 used FPTP, but were switched to list PR in the 1999 elections following pressure to standardise with the rest of the EU . </P> <P> When Labour regained power in 1997, they introduced a number of new assemblies, in London, Wales and Scotland, and opted for additional member systems of PR in all of these . They also adopted the supplementary vote system for directly elected mayors . In Scotland, a Labour / Liberal Democrat coalition in the new Scottish Parliament later introduced STV for local elections . However, such reforms encountered problems . When 7% of votes (over 140,000) were discounted or spoilt in the 2007 Scottish Parliamentary and local council elections, Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond protested that "the decision to conduct an STV election at the same time as a first - past - the - post ballot for the Scottish Parliament was deeply mistaken". </P> <P> In the 2010 general election campaign, the possibility of a hung parliament and the earlier expenses scandal pushed electoral reform up the agenda, something long supported by the Liberal Democrats . There were protests in favour of electoral reform organised by Take Back Parliament . There is a move to a largely elected Lords . The Conservative - Liberal Democrat coalition government held a referendum on introducing AV for the Commons on 5 May 2011, which was defeated . </P>

What changes could be made in the election system to create a more democratic process