London - Scotland's nationalists were seen as winners in Britain's election and the UK Independence Party losers -- but the latter won more support, highlighting peculiarities in the voting system that are prompting calls for change.
Despite getting almost 2.5 million more votes than the Scottish National Party (SNP) nationally, the anti-EU UKIP won only one seat at Westminster, compared to 56 for Nicola Sturgeon's bloc.
"We've always been here to believe that Britain needs to get back its democracy, we shouldn't be governed from Brussels, but what's interesting is what's happened in our own democracy," said UKIP's Nigel Farage, who quit as party leader after his bid to become an MP failed.
"The time has come for real, radical, political reform," he added.
The discrepancy between vote share and representation is a result of Britain's "first-past-the-post" (FPTP) system.
Under this, the government is formed by the party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons based on votes in each constituency, with the overall national vote share counting for nothing.
The system, also used to elect the United States Congress, tends to promote two-party politics and dilute the influence of smaller parties.
It also favours parties, such as the SNP, whose vote is concentrated in a small number of places rather than those, like UKIP and the Green Party, whose base is spread more evenly across the country.
AFP
