AT THE POLLS

U.K. Squashes Electoral Reform

A defeat for Liberal Democrats.

U.K. voters have rejected a revamp of the voting system for national elections. The overwhelming rebuke is a victory for conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who was against the measure. Nick Clegg, his Liberal Democrat deputy, supported it. Liberal Democrats have always been in favor of changing the current voting system, because it hurts small parties like themselves. However, after the vote on the referendum, roughly 70 percent of voters are against the new system that Clegg supported. Despite the tensions from a messy campaign over the referendum vote, both parties have said the coalition government will stick to the current deficit-reduction strategy. The coalition was formed after Cameron was unable to score an outright victory over Labour’s Gordon Brown in the general election last May.