The voting system that is used in British general elections is known as 'First Past the Post Voting'. But how does it work? Fiona Hearst explains.
How it works:
The voter simply marks one ‘X’ on the ballot paper in the box next to the candidate of their choice. The person who gets the most votes wins the seat.
The leader of the party with the highest number of seats, rather than the party with the highest percentage of the overall vote, is asked to form the government.
Winning without an absolute majority:
There is no requirement that the winning candidate gain an absolute majority of votes, but rather a simple majority.
The candidate that wins is the one that gets more votes than the other contenders even if that is by just one vote. This is known as plurality.
Plurality is considered one of the simplest of all voting systems, both for voters and counting officials.
In the United Kingdom each electoral district or constituency chooses only one member of parliament. The single-member districts tend to lead to just two large political parties dominating, as is the case in the UK with the Labour Party and the Conservatives.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the First Past The Post system for general elections in the UK, but use versions of proportional representation for local elections and European elections.
[Absolute Majority: The winning candidate must get more than half of all the votes cast.
Plurality: The winning candidate only needs the majority of all votes cast, which could mean winning by just one vote.]
