CHARLOTTETOWN, P.E.I. — Jensen Edwards
The Guardian
Voters in Charlottetown-Hillsborough Park will be voting in the province’s referendum on Tuesday but will not yet get the chance to vote for their local candidate.
Elections P.E.I. announced last weekend that the referendum vote in the district would go ahead to “preserve the integrity of a process already underway”. But after the death of Green party candidate Josh Underhay, a byelection will be held in the district within three months.
The date of a byelection to select an MLA for the district will be determined within the next three weeks, Elections P.E.I. said.
On the referendum, voters will have to answer either Yes or No to the question, “Should Prince Edward Island change its voting system to a mixed member proportional voting system?”
The results must satisfy two criteria to be legally binding: that a majority of voters in the province opt for Yes or No, and that a majority of voters in at least 17 of 27 districts, or 60 per cent, do the same. If the 60 per cent standard is not met, the legislature would still be required to discuss the issue. All party leaders have said that they would respect the outcome of the vote.
A switch to a mixed member system would divide the province into 18 electoral districts, where MLAs would be elected the same way they are now: the candidate with the most votes in a district would win. The nine remaining seats in the legislature would be assigned to at-large MLAs, who would win their seats based on the percentage of the province-wide vote that their party receives.
The vote was tight in P.E.I.’s most recent plebiscite on electoral reform. In a 2016, mixed member and first past the post received 29 per cent and 31.2 per cent of the first-round votes, respectively. After counting the second choices of voters who initially selected other options, mixed member came out on top with 52.4 per cent of the vote. In 2005, just under two-thirds of voting Islanders rejected a mixed member system.
Voters can visit referendumpei.ca for more information on today’s vote.
