Can Abstinence Prevent STV?

British Columbia, the Canadian province where I live, is proposing we change the way we vote. We will have a referendum in May '05 on whether or not to move to a PR-SVT system, which stands for "Proportional Representation-Single Transferable Vote". You can learn more about this proposal here.

I'd be interested in comments from readers with experience with such a system. How do you find it in practice?