Today promises to be a key day in the long campaign to reform Britain’s voting system, says Cambridge Labour Parliamentary Candidate Daniel Zeichner.

Gordon Brown is set to announce that the law will be changed ahead of the election to ensure that there is a referendum on voting reform, with the option of moving to the Alternative Vote system.

The AV system allows voters to rank candidates in order of preference, rather than simply placing an X next to their favoured candidate; candidates with fewest votes are eliminated and their votes redistributed until a winner emerges with an overall majority.

Mr Zeichner, a long-term supporter of voting reform, says that the change could be particularly important in a seat like Cambridge:

“Cambridge is a finely-balanced contest, and a seat that the three major parties have won within recent times. Switching to the alternative vote would ensure that whoever represents Cambridge has the endorsement of at least half the electorate. I think that would be a major step forward, and could be achieved quickly and at virtually no cost. Today marks a very big change – when one of the two major parties commits to changing a system that has dominated our political system, and I hope it will be widely welcomed.”