Elections

What is an election?

Parliament are basically the people in power who are not the Queen. Parliament is made up of a joint coalition of Liberal Democrats and the Conservatives. This parliament can run for a maximum of five years, before which the Queen will dissolve Parliament to allow a newly elected Parliament to set up and take charge straight away.
However Parliament can be dissolved at any time if the government no longer has the majority or an election can be triggered if the government loses a vote of confidence to the commons. Once an early election is triggered, a new party is quickly chosen to replace the existing party that better represents the countries wants and needs. However Jim Callaghan lost by one vote/seat in the year of 1979, the winter of discontent making way for Thatchers reign, which only just represented the majority by one vote/seat.

The current coalition government passed a law fixing the date of the elections every five years, making the next election date due on the 7th May 2015. Up until now the Prime minister has fixed the date of the election, making it a tradition to hold them on a Thursday since 1935.

In order to vote you have to register in your own constituency, there is approximately 45 million people on the electoral register, however not all of them will decide to vote. Joining the register has been made almost compulsory by any person taking a "credit rating" such as a loan, mortgage, deposit or credit card which then uses the information from the electoral register.

British citizens living overseas CAN still vote, but less than 15,000 of the 5.5 million actually do. Having said this though, there has been an increase in postal votes from across the country - those not going to polling stations but sending their vote in through post services. This made up 15% of the votes cast in 2005.

Who cant vote?

Under 18's, House of Lords, EU citizens, citizens of another country (except Irish republicans/common wealth) and those serving a sentence in prison.

In 1966 it was thought that all adults over the age of 18 should be allowed to vote in the general election as long as they were registered on the electoral register.

How does a Party win?

The system used in the UK is known as first-past-the-post which is not a proportionally representational system. Whoever gains the majority of seats gets elected and sets up their cabinet in Parliament. This means that national voting percentages are not reflected in Parliament.

In 2005 Labour had only 35% of the votes but won over half the seats. This can lead to tactical voting by the public. For instance, in Winchester a strictly Conservative city with hints of lib dems, will result in Labour supporters voting for Liberal Democrats so as to reduce the chances of Conservatives winning.