As Britain faces the prospect of having its first coalition government since World War II, the other question that is being asked is whether the time has come for the country to change its electoral system.

Having a situation where none of the three bigger parties managed to obtain a majority of seats has opened up a can of worms – and a solution is still to be found, four days after the election was held. Whether this will be long-lasting remains to be seen.

This instability, this indecisiveness and this uncertainty is not beneficial. And the possibility that a right wing party could be forming a coalition with a centre-left party – with some common ground in some sectors, but divergent views on others – does not clear the air. There might be an agreement today, or tomorrow, but the chances are that sooner or later the coalition will collapse, and Britain will be back to square one.

British political experts are already predicting that another general election could be called within a year.

With 306 seats in the House of Commons, the Conservatives are 20 short of a majority in Parliament. But if they are supported by the 57 MPs from third-place Liberal Democrats they could form a government with a comfortable cushion. The two sides agree on cutting taxes for the lowest-paid British workers, environmental matters and civil liberties, but while Nick Clegg’s party is in favour of an eventual move from the sterling to the euro, David Cameron’s party is in complete opposition.

In between, the Labour Party sits and waits. Gordon Brown is still officially the Prime Minister, and he is still calling for Labour’s own coalition with the Liberal Democrats if the one with the Conservatives fails. Stanger things have happened in politics, but the possibility that the strongest party in Britain will not form part of the government remains.

One big stumbling block remains the electoral reform, a card which the Lib Dems are using to gain more ground. Changes in the way the British elect their government could mean more power to Clegg’s party which, in spite of still being the smallest of the three larger segments of the political spectrum, could give them the balance of power for many years.

And it’s obvious why the Liberal Democrats yearn for change: In this election, 23 per cent of the vote gained them only nine per cent of the seats in the House of Commons. The perceived unfairness of the current system was evident at a protest held by the Lib Dems on Saturday, where many carried placards reading: “Fair Votes Now!”

The Conservatives are unlikely to be very interested in electoral reform of the system that helped them gain more seats than their Labour rivals for the first time in 13 years. And so they are offering other alternatives.

There have been reports that Cameron has offered at least three top ministerial posts to the Lib Dems in a bid to find a compromise, but no agreement has as yet been reached. While, on the one hand, Cameron must extend a hand of cooperation with the Lib Dems if the idea to form a coalition government with them is to go through, on the other hand he must also look within his own ranks as he does not want to irk his party’s right-wingers.