by political editor Paul Francis

Voters in Kent have been urged to turn their back on plans to replace the "first past the post" electoral system.

Supporters for the ‘No To AV’ lobby staged a low-key launch of the Kent campaign at Maidstone’s County Hall with a warning that if May’s referendum backed the introduction of the Alternative Vote, some parties would have an unfair disadvantage.

The man spearheading the Kent campaign to retain the existing system said there was no reason to switch.

County councillor and Conservative party regional organiser Cllr Keith Ferrin said: "If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.

"There are real disadvantages to the change. You have a system at the moment where you put your cross against a ballot paper; everyone gets their vote and you have one vote each.

"What you could have is a system where some people will get five or six votes because you put them down in order of preference.

"That means that if you are supporting a minority party, you get your vote taken into account all the way through.

"If you vote Conservative, you will only ever get to express one preference because usually the contest will be between the three main parties.

"That seems to be to be entirely wrong."

He denied that under first past the post disenfranchised many voters in constituencies where some MPs were elected with fewer than 40 per cent of the votes cast.

"In the last election, public opinion wanted rid of Brown but weren’t sure about Cameron. That is exactly what we ended up with.

"The electorate has managed to express itself fully through first past the post."

Supporters of AV say it would more fairly represent voters’ views and would end a system that favoured two-party politics.

What is the Alternative Vote system?

MPs are currently elected by the first-past-the-post system, where the winning candidate is the one who gets the most votes.

The referendum on May 5 gives voters the chance to change the way MPs are elected.

Under the Alternative Vote system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.

Anyone getting more than 50 per cent of first-preference votes is elected.

If no-one gets 50 per cent of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers’ second choices allocated to those remaining.

This process continues until one candidate has at least 50 per cent of all votes in that round.