British general election

The British General Election ( English general elections ), the Members of the House of Commons in the UK selected. The legislative period lasts five years. Since 2010, there are 650 constituencies (Engl. Constituencies ), in each of which a seat is allocated on a majority vote.

A campaign rally in the Oxford West and Abingdon constituency ahead of the 2005 general election

execution

A lower house election must take place before the beginning of a legislative period. Its length has been a maximum of five years since the Parliament Act was passed in 1911. It could be extended at most by the time required for the election campaign and the formation of a government (usually five to eight weeks). The Prime Minister was able to lower house election in 2010 the election date on his terms - eg. B. because of favorable survey values ​​- set to any point in time before the end of the five-year period (usually after four years). The deadline started running after the newly elected parliament met for the first session. In order to be able to schedule new elections, the Prime Minister asked the monarch to dissolve parliament by means of a royal proclamation. New elections then took place 17 working days after the day of the proclamation.

With the passage of the Fixed-Term Parliaments Act in 2011 by the conservative-liberal coalition, fixed five-year legislative periods were introduced (Art. 1 Para. 2). Accordingly, the next general election took place on May 7, 2015 (Art. 1 Para. 2). Under certain conditions, however, an earlier election is also possible (e.g. motion by 2/3 of all members of the lower house in accordance with Art. 2 Para. 1 (b)).

Since 1935, every general election has been held on a Thursday. Of the 16 general election since 1945, four were held in October, four in June, three in May and two in February.

Suffrage

Any UK, Irish or Commonwealth citizen who is at least 18 years of age on election day and resides in the UK is eligible to vote. This does not include members of the House of Lords , prison inmates, the mentally ill and those convicted of violating the electoral law in the past five years.

Citizens of other EU countries are not allowed to vote in parliamentary elections.

Members of the British royal family are theoretically eligible to vote. But in practice it would be considered unconstitutional for them to exercise their right to vote. British citizens who have moved abroad will be eligible to vote for another 15 years. Members of the military, diplomats and other government employees are also eligible to vote abroad. Voters must be on the register of voters in order to be able to vote. You can register up to eleven working days before the election. There is no compulsory voting .

Electoral system

The British Parliament is elected by majority vote (English first past the post ). If a party wins an absolute majority of the seats, it forms the new government and the party leader becomes prime minister. In the rare cases without a clear majority (see Hung parliament ), two or more parties form a coalition , with the leader of the largest coalition party becoming prime minister. Alternatively, a party can form a minority government based on informal agreements with other parties.

Majority suffrage sometimes leads to major distortions. A party that gets 20 percent of the vote nationwide can easily get very few seats. Such a party can be outperformed by small regional parties that may have perhaps one percent of the electorate nationwide but have a strong electoral base in certain constituencies.

This electoral system has been criticized primarily by those parties that would do much better in applying proportional representation , namely the Liberal Democrats . Unlike Labor (poorer urban districts) or the Tories (rural districts in England and affluent suburbs), these do not have a clearly defined geographical electorate and often have to make do with second place due to their relatively equal distribution across all districts. The Liberal Democrats also have some strongholds in the country (central Wales, northern Scotland, south-west England, south-west London).

Majority suffrage advocates argue

• that extremist parties have practically no chance of gaining a majority of the votes in a lower house constituency (= getting a member of their party into the lower house)
• that voters can identify better with their MPs and
• that the MP has a stronger interest in voting in the interests of his voters than if he had been elected to parliament by being on his party's electoral list (then he would be more subject to party discipline ) (Note: 299 members of the German Bundestag are elected in Bundestag constituencies (" direct mandate "), 299 move into the Bundestag via the state lists of the parties.)

After the elections

The polling stations close at 10:00 p.m. and the counting usually starts immediately. The results are announced in some cases around 11 p.m., and in most constituencies between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. In Northern Ireland , the counting does not start until the morning after the election, with the results being announced in the early afternoon.

If the ruling party wins the election, the government automatically remains in office and does not need to be confirmed or reinstated. If the opposition has won enough seats to form the government, the prime minister gives the monarch his letter of resignation. The monarch then appoints the leader of the opposition party as prime minister, who then appoints the cabinet ministers. If the opposition is clearly successful in the election, the new prime minister usually takes office within 24 hours after the polling stations have closed (and in some cases before all constituencies have been counted).

The defeated Prime Minister has the option to remain in office even if he is defeated. The speech from the throne (in which the monarch announces the government program) may contain a clause for a motion of confidence or no confidence in the old government. The last Prime Minister to take advantage of this option was Edward Heath in 1974. However, when coalition talks with the Liberal Democrats failed, he resigned. Thereupon Queen Elizabeth II instructed the leader of the Labor Party , Harold Wilson , with the formation of a new government. The monarch cannot appoint a new prime minister until his predecessor has formally resigned; so he cannot force anyone to resign. If the incumbent Prime Minister is confirmed in office, he usually undertakes a minor reshuffle of the cabinet. The largest opposition party becomes the "Official Opposition", also known as " Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition ".

By-elections

If an MP dies or resigns, has the seat of his constituency by -election (Engl. By-election ) to be filled. These elections are mostly insignificant, as the incumbent government usually has a comfortable majority. Often, in by-elections, voters tend to vote for the candidate from an opposition party or a protest party.

By-elections have an impact on the incumbent government if it only has a wafer-thin majority and loses it through a by-election. This was most recently the case with the Conservative government of John Major (Prime Minister November 1990-1997). During his tenure (1992–1997), 18 by-elections were held. The Conservative Party lost eight seats and from December 1996 no longer had an absolute majority. Thanks to an unofficial coalition with Northern Irish parties, Major was able to stay in office until March 1997, when the five-year period expired. The general election on 1 May 1997 lost Major; the Conservatives in power since 1979 lost power to the Labor Party under Tony Blair .

The party that won the by-election often regards this victory as a positive signal and / or as an indication of the popularity of the incumbent government. Most of the time, local issues have a much higher priority than in general renewal elections, national politics are rather secondary. The personality of the candidate is also more important.

Election results since 1918

Results of the British general election from 1832 to 2005

choice	date	prime minister	Political party	majority
1918	December 14, 1918	David Lloyd George	Liberal Party (coalition government)	238
1922	November 15, 1922	Andrew Bonar Law	Conservative party	74
1923	December 6, 1923	Ramsay MacDonald	Labor Party
1924	October 29, 1924	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative party	210
1929	May 30, 1929	Ramsay MacDonald	Labor Party
1931	October 27, 1931	Ramsay MacDonald	National Labor Party (National Government)	492
1935	November 14, 1935	Stanley Baldwin	Conservative Party (National Government)	242
1945	July 5, 1945	Clement Attlee	Labor Party	146
1950	February 23, 1950	Clement Attlee	Labor Party	5
1951	October 25, 1951	Winston Churchill	Conservative party	17th
1955	May 26, 1955	Anthony Eden	Conservative party	54
1959	October 8, 1959	Harold Macmillan	Conservative party	100
1964	October 15, 1964	Harold Wilson	Labor Party	5
1966	March 31, 1966	Harold Wilson	Labor Party	96
1970	June 18, 1970	Edward Heath	Conservative party	31
1974	February 28, 1974	Harold Wilson	Labor Party
1974	October 10, 1974	Harold Wilson	Labor Party	3
1979	May 3rd 1979	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative party	43
1983	June 9, 1983	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative party	144
1987	June 11, 1987	Margaret Thatcher	Conservative party	102
1992	April 9, 1992	John Major	Conservative party	21
1997	May 1, 1997	Tony Blair	Labor Party	179
2001	June 7, 2001	Tony Blair	Labor Party	167
2005	May 5, 2005	Tony Blair	Labor Party	66
2010	May 6, 2010	David Cameron	Conservative party
2015	May 7, 2015	David Cameron	Conservative party	11
2017	June 8, 2017	Theresa May	Conservative party
2019	December 12, 2019	Boris Johnson	Conservative party	80

Individual evidence

1. ^ Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 , accessed August 21, 2013

Web links

• BBC election in Great Britain
• British Embassy
• Graphic showing the electoral system of Great Britain