SOME people are addicted to dangerous things like tobacco and gambling, some to harmless activities like tiddly-winks and train-spotting.

Of course nothing is ever completely harmless.

You might get repetitive strain injury in your squidging finger or even frostbite while writing down numbers at the end of the platform in a January gale.

And they do say that when winks are being squodged and even boondocked, the game can get as vicious as croquet.

But I digress. I was just delaying having to admit to my own addiction to elections. Well, each to their own I say. Diversity adds to the interest of life.

I did collect stamps when "ah were a lad" but it seemed a bit boring and I could never keep up with all the new issues, even in those days.

Train-spotting was fun for a while and led to some quite educational trips about the country, not to mention lots of hairy episodes "sneaking round" engine sheds which would nowadays get kids an ASBO for trespassing - not to mention health and safety!

In my later teens I discovered political activity, which was interesting and quite fun for a while (and look where it can get you if you don't watch out!) And so I discovered elections and began a lifetime fascination with electoral systems and election results.

In this country we used to think voting was simple: you put your X in a box and that's that. Then someone counts them up and the person with the most X's wins.

That was always a narrow British (and American) view of voting. I long ago discovered there are about as many different electoral systems as there are countries.

Even in this country we now have at least seven, and of those, several are designed to produce a more proportional result than the traditional "first past the post" single-member constituencies that we use for elections to the House of Commons and many council seats.

In England and Wales, that is. Northern Ireland already uses STV (the "single transferable vote", for anoraks) in multi-member seats for its assembly and councils - and Scotland is doing so for the first time in the council elections next week.

So for people like me, addicts of elections and passionate supporters of STV, it's an exciting time. But I'll understand if you would rather get your kicks some other way!