Electoral System

The maximum legal life of the House of Commons is five years and the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister may dissolve it before the end of this term. The Prime Minister is bound to do this if his Ministry is defeated on an important issue by the vote of the House of Commons. Nowadays, though, when the electorate often votes for a particular party leader rather than the party itself, government leaders try to use the power of dissolving Parliament and hold elections at moments of the highest popularity, as, for example, Mrs. Thatcher did after her victory in the Falklands War.

When it has been decided to hold a General Election, the old Parliament is dissolved and 20 clear days must elapse before the new Parliament meets. A notice, or writ, has to be sent to each constituency, where the Returning Officer makes provisions for the holding of the election.

For electoral purposes the whole of the United Kingdom is divided into 659 electoral constituencies. Each constituency usually contains about 66,000 voters and returns one member to the House of Commons. To ensure that constituencies electorates are kept roughly equal, four permanent Parliamentary Boundary Commissions, one each for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, keep constituencies under review.

General elections for parliamentary seats are by secret ballot. British citizens, together with citizens of other Commonwealth countries and citizens of the Irish Republic resident in Britain, may vote provided they are at least 18 years old, are registered in the annual register of electors for the constituency and are not subject to any disqualifications. People not entitled to vote include the Royal Family; members of the House of Lords; mentally ill people, convicted prisoners still in prison; and person convicted within the previous five years of corrupt or illegal practices.

People vote for any one of the candidates in the constituency in which they are registered. Each elector normally casts one vote in person, at a polling station. He or she will make a cross on a ballot paper next to the name of the candidate for whom the vote is cast, fold the paper and drop it folded through the slot in the ballot box. But there are always people who are not able to vote in person, e.g. the sick or physically incapacitated, members of the armed forces or Crown servants employed overseas. These people may apply for and become entitled to an absent vote — a vote by post or a vote by proxy (authorising another person to cast a vote). Certain voting rights also exist for expatriate Britons.

The candidate that obtains the largest number of voices in a constituency, irrespective of whether he or she has an overall majority, is returned as MP for that area. The other candidates, even if they come close to the winner, will not get a seat in Parliament and their votes are «wasted». This system is known as the simple majority, or the «first-past-the post». If there are more than two candidates in a constituency (which is usually the case), the MP, who is elected, represents very often a minority of the electorate. In practice it means that a government can be elected with a minority of the popular vote and is able to carry out its policies because it has achieved a majority of the seats in the House of Commons. This system also means that a party can obtain a considerable number of votes nationally but have very few MPs in the Commons, because these votes are distributed evenly among the various constituencies and thus wasted.

There is no voting in Britain by proportional representation (PR), except for local elections in Northern Ireland.

British citizens may stand and be elected as MPs provided they are over 21 and are not subject to any disqualifications. Among those disqualified are undercharged bankrupts; people sentenced to more than one year's imprisonment; clergy of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland and Roman Catholic Church; peers, and holders of certain offices like civil servants, some local government officers, members of the regular armed forces or the police service.

A candidate's nomination for election must be signed by two electors who net as proposer and seconder, and by eight other electors registered in the constituency. He or she, in theory, does not require any party backing in order to stand for election, but the practice today shows that no independent candidates succeed in being elected. A candidate must also pay a deposit (currently £500), which is lost if his or her votes do not exceed 5% of those validly cast.

In recent years the national election campaign, fought between the party leaders, has become more and more important and less importance is attached to the local campaign. One of the best known local activities still in existence is «canvassing», i.e. supporters of a candidate go from door to door arguing and persuading the residents to cast their votes for the candidate they represent. Expenditure by individual candidates and their agents is limited by law, but long-term expenditure is unlimited.

There have been many debates about the British electoral system. Many see it as unfair, because this system prevents numerically smaller parties from being represented in Parliament, and campaigns continue for the introduction of some form of proportional representation, which would create a wider selection of parties in the House of Commons and could cater for minority political interests.

Text D. Read the text and ask questions on it to be discussed in class