PROTESTERS occupied a car park to demand a change to Britain’s voting system.

Activists from campaign group Make Votes Matter demonstrated in Brighton, Worthing, Lewes and Hastings as part of a national day of action on Saturday calling for political change.

In Worthing protesters staged socially distanced demonstrations on the pier, outside the Worthing Wheel and in the Grafton multi-storey car park demanding the government abolishes the current voting system for general elections.

The activists said the current “first past the post” voting system is outdated and should be replaced with a “proportional representation” system in which the number of seats each party gets in Parliament is proportionate to the number of votes they receive nationally.

“Our country has great values, like individual liberty, freedom of speech, rule of law, fairness, equality, community, cooperation and compassion,” said Worthing protest co-organiser Peter Cheng.

The Argus: Protesters assembled on Worthing PierProtesters assembled on Worthing Pier

“But everyone agrees our political system doesn’t reflect those values.

“Our politicians are adversarial and fractional.

“This is the fault of first past the post way of running elections, which is not just outdated but is damaging our country.

“Proportional representation is a modern electoral system which encourages politicians to work together to find solutions to the problems that we all care about.

“It is used by nearly all advanced democracies, so it’s time for us to catch up and switch to the fairest and most effective way of choosing our leaders.”

Fellow co-organiser Debbie Woudman said a citizens’ assembly should be called to decide the future of voting.

The Argus: The activists called for a change to Britain's voting systemThe activists called for a change to Britain's voting system

“The campaign calls for a citizens’ assembly to work together from across all political boundaries and diversity dimensions to determine how the electoral system should be transformed to truly represent its people,” she said.

In the first past the post system, the UK is divided into 650 constituencies, each represented by one MP.

In each constituency, the candidate who receives the most votes is elected as MP.

But critics say the system is unfair as it means parties can receive a majority in Parliament despite not receiving a majority of votes in the country.