Electoral system

8.Electoral system

The House of Commons is the only chamber in Parliament that is elected at General Elections: General Elections are held every 5 years. The U.K. is divided into 651 (2005) constituencies(electoral districts). The constituencies do not coincide with counties. Each constituency has the same average number of people - 60 000 - and elects one member to the House of Commons.

The candidatesmay be nominated by different parties of there may be so-called "independents" (candidates that do not belong to any party). The candidate who wins the majority of the votes (it does not have to be over 50%, but merely more votes than any of the other candidates individually has won) wins the elections. The party that wins the majority of the votes becomes the leading partyand its leader becomes Prime Ministerand forms the Government (the Cabinet). The party that comes second becomes the official opposition.Such system is called "the majority system" or "first-past-the-post" system and is considered to be unfair because it gives little chance to small parties to send their candidates to the Commons while the system of proportional representation aims to give each party the proportion of seats in Parliament corresponding to the proportion of votes it received at General Elections. All parties publish their manifestos before General Elections. They are intended to tell the electorate what the party would do if it formed the next Government. The British citizensmay vote provided they are aged 18. If they are/live abroad (less than 15 years) they can vote in a British embassy or by post. The votingis on the same day (usually Tuesday) in all the constituencies from 7 a.m. till 9 p.m. Elections are held by secret ballot. By-elections can be held: as a result of elevation of an MP to the House of Lords; when a vacancy occurs as a result of death or resignation of an MP or if he can no longer be an MP.

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