MORE than half of constituencies have been sewn up weeks before the general election, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) said yesterday.

ERS said it could already confidently call the result in 364 of the 650 seats being contested on May 7 based on past results and polling data.

Its analysis found the Tories have 186 seats wrapped up, compared to 150 for Labour, just seven for the Lib Dems and 21 for other parties.

ERS chief executive Katie Ghose said the predictions were made possible by Britain’s archaic first past the post electoral system.

“The fact that we can firmly predict the outcome of over half of the seats being contested this May is a sorry indictment of our outdated voting system,” she said.

“The average constituency hasn’t changed hands since the 1960s.

“This is a huge disincentive for people to get out there and vote, and for other parties to challenge incumbents.”

The north-east of England has the highest proportion of safe seats at 79.3 per cent, followed by Northern Ireland (77.8 per cent), East of England (70 per cent), south-east England (69 per cent) and London (68.5 per cent).

The Communist Party is contesting nine constituencies at the general election, most of them safe Labour seats.

Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney candidate Rob Griffiths said the party supports a move to the single transferable vote to “allow voters to set out their own priorities and produce a Parliament that reflects public opinion.”

“This would be far more democratic than the cynical alternative vote proposal put to a sham referendum by the Con-Dems,” he added.