The government today announced the question that will be put to voters when they vote on a change to the electoral system in May, but was immediately criticised for "rushing" the process.
The parliamentary voting system and constituencies bill published today revealed that voters will be asked: "Do you want the United Kingdom to adopt the 'alternative vote' system instead of the current 'first past the post' system for electing members of parliament to the House of Commons?"
The bill also contains plans on how to reduce the number of MPs in the Commons from 650 to 600. Another bill published today, the fixed-term parliament bill, set the date for a general election for the first time in British history.
The reforms are championed by the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg, and are the choice fruits of the coalition negotiations with the Conservatives. While the Tories will oppose it, Labour had put a pledge to have a referendum on AV in its manifesto, but there are debates about whether the party will come to the Liberal Democrats' aid and campaign in favour.
Today the shadow justice secretary, Jack Straw, led the attack on the bill, focusing not on the referendum but on the parallel attempt to shrink the number of constituencies.
The published bill allows only 12 weeks for concerns to be aired about any redrawings that the Boundary Commission may recommend. It also says: "A Boundary Commission may not cause a public inquiry to be held for the purposes of a report under this act."
Straw said: "This bill will create new constituencies by central diktat, and explicitly bans any kind of public inquiry into the process."
"This is even though the ability for local communities to have their say has been welcomed by the Boundary Commission as helping them to improve their proposals.
He added: "For decades Britain has enjoyed a transparent, respected and non-partisan system for setting boundaries. This will now be abolished. This is the reverse of David Cameron's 'big society' and Nick Clegg's 'new localism'."
The parliamentary group leader for Plaid Cymru also condemned the plans, pointing out that they would mean Welsh representation at Westminster would be slashed by up to a quarter. Elfyn Llwyd said: "Apparently no constituency will be greater than 13,000 square kilometres, which will be of little comfort to us in Wales where the whole country is around 20,000 square kilometres.
"But this will still mean vast super-constituencies hundreds of miles long and wide, which won't be welcomed by constituents who will find it very difficult for them to see their MP on a regular basis."
Graham Allen, chairman of the cross-party group on political and constitutional reform and an avowed supporter of AV, was disappointed that the bill appeared to be being "rushed through parliament", which he said jeopardised the coalition's claim to the "moral high ground".
His committee would scrutinise it but on the timetable published yesterday they would only get two sessions before a second reading.Allen said: "Unfortunately the second reading is on the first day back in September which means my committee only has two sessions to take evidence. They are pushing this through. By putting the second reading on the first day back they are acting in an old-fashioned way and by ramming the bill through they will be losing the moral high ground and tarnishing the new politics.
"I am in discussion with the deputy prime minister's office to make sure there can be greater scrutiny."
Allen wants the second reading to be moved back to the end of the second week in September.