The Forgotten elections

[barcode]

There will be another election taken place on 6th may, many English council elections are up for grabs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kin ... ions,_2010

The question will be who going to get the votes and will the "English democrats" be able to pick up more seats and council or even another mayor? Or will the BNP pick up more councillor?

[Steve in Pudsey]

It's an interesting question - the turnout will likely be higher for the local elections than normal with polling taking place simultaneously with the General Election, so it will be interesting to see whether the local election follows the pattern of the General Election, and whether there are fewer minority parties getting in through the apathy of the supporters of the main parties.

[martindtanderson]

London only has the General election for the most part, with local and mayoral elections in 2012

[DVB Cornwall]

The number of Councils being elected at these Local Polls is down on previous years, the mania for Unitary Authorities being the reason.

[sheilykidman]

I don't understand the election system in England. How is it different from USA? Can someone help?

[westy 2]

London only has the General election for the most part, with local and mayoral elections in 2012

I still wonder how the hell did Boris Johnson get in last time?

(And don't say more votes than the others!)

[barcode]

London only has the General election for the most part, with local and mayoral elections in 2012

I still wonder how the hell did Boris Johnson get in last time?

(And don't say more votes than the others!)

ok: there was a Increase turn out.

[WillPS]

I don't understand the election system in England. How is it different from USA? Can someone help?

In the UK, a citizen over the age of 18 has the right to vote for an individual and/or political party at three separate levels: local elections, general elections and European elections. There are also further elections in Scotland (and possibly Northern Ireland and Scotland) regarding their national governments, to whom some issues are devolved from Westminster (for example, the Scottish Parliament decides the agenda with regards to Education in Scotland).

A general election is caused by the Prime Minister's request to dissolve Parliament, he may do this at any time but this must happen no more than 5 years after the previous request. In a general election the public are asked to choose an individual they believe represent their best interests at a national level. This individual becomes that constituency's Member of Parliament (or MP). There a 645 constituencys and MPs. Most MPs will represent a political party (such as Labour, Conservative or Liberal Democrat) - if a party can get 326 MPs elected, they have successfully formed a majority government and thus hold control of parliament; the leader of the party is appointed by the the Queen as Prime Minister and they in turn position a cabinet of MPs as Ministers (official spokespeople/decision makers on key issues such as Transport, Defence and the Environment). If no party reaches the magical number of 326 seats, then the result of the election is a 'Hung Parliament', which will result in an alliance between two (or more) parties which would then take control as above or dissolution of parliament - essentially repeating the whole exercise once more with the hope of being able to gain votes from consituencys with an MP with no clear majority.


Local elections concern the control of local government - essentially a number of councillors are elected who then act as key decision makers for that area's council. Most candidates represent a political party, and if a political party win the majority of councillor seats for any local government organisation then they 'hold' said organisation. Each term of office at this level is set to last for 4 years but these are not synchronised nationally.

In a European election, citizens of EU-member countries choose a political party to represent them regarding pan-European issues. Every region is allotted 5 seats at the European Parliament in Brussels which are distributed proportionally to each party according to the number of votes they received. These parties then subscribe to an alliance of other parties which broadly represents their overall position.

In order to lessen the logistical burden of an election, local government elections are normally timed, where possible, to coincide with either the general or European elections, or as in 2001 and 2005 - both.

[Alexia]

There are also further elections in Scotland (and possibly Northern Ireland and Scotland) regarding their national governments, to whom some issues are devolved from Westminster (for example, the Scottish Parliament decides the agenda with regards to Education in Scotland).

I'm sure you meant to mention Wales in there somewhere; and yes you are right, in the nations we have four levels of election: Local (i.e. council), Regional (Scottish Parliament / Welsh Assembly / NI Assembly), National (general/bye elections) and European.

Elections to the Assembly happen once every 4 years, and occur on the same date as English council elections. The last lot were in 2007.

I'm not sure what the scenario is in Isle of Man, Jersey, Guernsey and the CIs.

[Sput]

I spent a while today trying to find out who was running for local elections here in manchester.

I gave up after quite a long time and no success. Is that information really not available yet or is it so eclipsed by the national ones that no-one bothered to publish it?

[Nick Harvey]

Isn't Mr Shitarse running for Manchester this year?