what is the uk electoral system in the uk like?

Question

what is it about?

Answer 1

I assume you are american so our system is based on voting for a person to represent you in parliment.. The people who stand for election are usually but not always part of a political party so the one with the most people elected form a controlling group in parliment. The leader of this group is appointed (technically by the queen) as the "First Lord of the Treasury" and because he or she is in charge of the money they automatically become the prime minister. We also have an upper house the lords who are not elected but get there by appointment or by inheritance. A proposal for a new law or a "bill" is debated in the lower house "the house of commons" it is then passed to the upper house who also debate it and can amend it. If they pass it it goes to the queen to sign it and it becomes law. In theory the upper house can stop a bill (apart from money bills) but the lower house can "force" it through by various means. Many bills are what are called enabling bills which have clauses in them allowing ministers to amend them. They do this by putting the amendment before parliment. This is call "laying" the amendment before the house or putting on the table because that is literally what they do. If it is not challenged within a certain time I am not sure now I think 14 days it automatically becomes law. Much of our law is passed this way so only the ministers and the civil servants who draught the amendment know what it is all about which is why an lot of silly amendments get passed into law

Answer 2

The system causes much debate, but in my opinion is generally a good one. The UK is split into 646 constituencies of approximately similar population sizes and each constituency holds an election for a person to represent that area in the House of Commons.

Nearly all candidates in a constituency will belong to one of the political parties. The 3 main parties are Conservative, Labour and the Liberal Democrats. There are also several smaller parties such as UK Independence Party and Northern Ireland has parties distinctive from the rest of the UK. Each candidate campaigns in the constituency up until election day when polling stations are open from 7am for all registered voters who have not opted for a postal vote.

Once the polling stations close each constituency will count the results and the candidate with the most votes will have been elected to sit as a Member of Parliament for that constituency.

Dring the night of the elction television stations will provide live coverage of interesting counts and bring all the results together, with analysis, and keep track of how well the main parties are doing. Once a party has won 324 constituencies and therefore has 324 MPs it has a majority in Parliament and can form the Government (usually the next day). The leader of this party will be invited by the Monarch to become Prime Minister and form a government.

The First Past The Post system has many problems, not least because it regularly distorts the results and smaller parties find it difficult to make an impact. Nevertheless it generally provides strong, secure governments that aren't subject to crumbling coalitions like some European countries that use proportional representation. FPTP also ensures there is a link between an individual MP and a geographical area so that each MP can be held to account by his constituents and can be close to the people he or she represents.

As well as a general parliamentary election there are several other elections in the UK that use different electoral systems. As the UK is part of the EU each British citizen is entitled to vote in the European Parliament election which is run on a regional list system. There are also elections for the devolved assemblies (Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and, when it is sitting, the Northern Irish Assembly) and unitary authorities, town, borough and county councils.

Answer 3

The system is on the face of it a good one. The problem is that when a candidate is elected it is sometimes only 25% of the electorate that has voted. Assuming that 75% of those votes go to other choices then we end up with an elected member being placed into a position of high office by a very small proportion of the electorate.
If every person eligible to vote used their vote then we would have councillors and MP's that the majority of the population actually wanted.

Answer 4

For each part of the United Kingdom with the exception of Northern Ireland, we have a system, commonly called "first past the post" i.e. candidates stand for election in several hundred areas and the people vote. The candidate with the largest number of votes in each voting area is elected as Member of Parliament. In accordance with ancient tradition (this is the United Kingdom after all, we have the history) a simple piece of paper with the candidates name upon it is presented to the voter who takes it to a private place and places a simple "x" upon it ( as in days of old when people were illiterate). This is placed in a metal closed box and taken away and manually counted. Unlike other countries ( and in particular the usa with the bush/gore fiasco) our system is incredibly simple, quick and accurate and just a few hours after closing, results start coming in fast and furious. When the result is known, i.e. which party has a clear majority, Her Majesty The Queen, as Head of State invites the leader of that party to form the next government.
Due to the political climate in Northern Ireland and the peculiarities of that region, it was decided some years ago that the province should adopt the proportional representation system of voting, whereby collectively parties are allocated seats in accordance to the total votes cast for them as opposed to individual voting areas.

Answer 5

It's great, we elect people, with the idea that through their wisdom and guidance in government, they might improve our standards of living so that we may live good lives in peace and prosperity, but guess what?

As soon as we elect people they get the idea that they are Lord and master over all of us, and free to piss on us as much as they like. Then we are all lied to, and taxed to the limit, to pay for wars that we don't want.

Then 4-5 years after being elected we start all over again, keeping our fingers crossed, that we might elect a politician with some integrity, that will not squander Tax payers money, and might have some regard for the people that elected him/her during his/her term in office.

Answer 6

the electoral system here in the uk is a complete joke, in particular with local elections because you never see who the candidates are in person, they put leaflets through your door and promise everything, our local councillor has just been arrested for getting drunk and setting fire to his flat in order to get moved, and these people want you to vote for them, as far as the main general election is concerned it is very confusing because the candidates spend too much time putting down the other guys and forget to tell everyone what their real polices are, for these reasons i now do not vote for anyone at all, it needs serious investigation and a complete overhall.

Answer 7

Er - How about corrupt and full of fiddling rogues taking advantage of the holes in the system.

Answer 8

It must be faulty, because the Scottish voter helped to get us the wrong government.

Answer 9

Farcical!!

Answer 10

one vote per person, every body registered can vote