1 DECEMBER 1967, Page 27

Sir: I have never been able to see much point

in providing a space on a ballot paper for disapproval of all the candidates, for we already can, and some- times do, express the same thing by writing a disapproving word across the paper.

Rather than encourage this negative form of criticism, it would be better to encourage electors to put forward more acceptable candidates. If we had, as the Irish have, a system allowing any ten electors to put forward a candidate to their liking, without fear of 'splitting the vote,' there could be little reason for anyone not to make his vote a positive expression of his real wishes.

Enid Lakeman The Electoral Reform Society, Suite 56, 3 Whitehall Court, London, SW1