A PUBLIC meeting to promote proportional representation is being held in Woking town centre.

The event is on Saturday 31 August in the Gallery of Christ Church between 5.30pm and 7pm.

It is being described as politically neutral and is being run in conjunction with Make Votes Matter, the national cross-party movement for proportional representation.

The three speakers are all Woking-based and are Andy Berriman, a Make Votes Matter Grassroots leader, Paul Hoekstra, the Woking Green Party co-ordinator and a Make Votes Matter volunteer, and Philip Goldenberg, a former veteran Liberal Democrat borough councillor and seven times parliamentary candidate.

The meeting will be chaired by Amelie Abass, a Woking Green Party official and Make Votes Matter volunteer.

Amelie said: “Too many people didn't vote in the election as first past the post means that once a party has the majority, votes lose their power.

“So the system is not a real representation of what people want.

“Proportional representation has the power to completely turn the British electoral system on its head for the better, and I want to be part of that change.”

Amelie, 21, went to school in Ascot and has lived in Woking for the past three years.

In September, she will be starting a degree in politics and international relations at Royal Holloway, University of London.

“All my politics involvement at the moment is purely voluntary and for the hope of a better society,” Amelie said.

The event is free, however due to the size of the venue, entrance is by ticket available at https://buytickets.at/makevotesmatter/1325255.

Make Votes Matter has its roots in the Alliance Building Conference in Westminster in 2016.

In July 2019 it launched the cross-party Good Systems Agreement and is supported by more than 70 political parties and groups and other organisations.