UK electoral system

[goldy girl]

How does the UK electoral system work? How do they decide who gets a seat in the House of Commons? Why do parties get seats when they have a lower percenage of the votes than other parties?

[spudqueen]

The country is divided into constituencies. At each election nominees for the Member of Parliament for each constituency declare themselves then everyone knows who is standing in each constituency. On polling day people go to a polling station and put an X by the name of the person they would like to vote for. The person with the most votes becomes the Member of Parliament for that constituency. The political party with the most Members of Parliament become the Government.

[Llamatron]

I wish they'd teach this stuff in school.
I've never understood how our political system is supposed to work.
What's the difference between local elections and nationals? What exactly are local Councillors? What do Mayors do?

[spudqueen]

National elections is when Members of Parliament are elected and a Government is formed. The leader of the winning party becomes the Prime Minister. Local elections are when local Councillors are elected. Again the people who wish to be elected declare themselves, they usually then stick leaflets through your door in the run up to election day. On polling day people go to a polling station and put an X by the name of the person they would like to be their local councillor. The person with the most votes wins, the party with the most amount of councillors becomes the leading party in that area. (Usually a town or area). The councillors are the people that make decisions on local issues, eg new roads, planning applications, taxi fares etc.

[spudqueen]

Sorry - just seen the bit about the Mayor. As far as I know the Mayor is a councillor who is rewarded for his long standing work as a councillor by being Mayor. The Mayor is like a figure head and he (or she) is the one who opens fetes, greets Royalty (if they should visit) etc.