That's right, today, Thursday March 7th is the day of the General Election for ministers in Parliament for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
UK citizens aged 18+ who have registered to vote will be heading out all over the UK today to their local polling stations to vote on their representatives in the Houses of Parliament for the next 5 years.
How the system works.
- The United Kingdom is split up into 650 different constituencies.
- Eligible citizens in these constituencies have the ability to register to vote prior to the election, where they recieve their polling card.
- On election day citizens will visit their local polling stations (there may be multiple per constituency), where they hand in their polling cards and head to the ballots. There they are presented with a list of candidates and their respective political parties in their constituencies.
- Citizens vote for 1 candidate and hand in their ballot paper, where it is stored away anonymously.
- Polling stations cease voting at 10pm (unless there has been a queue), at which point all constituencies begin counting the votes for each respective candidate.
- Throughout the night consitutencies declare their elected Minister once they have counted their seats.
- All 650 ministers elected make up the Lower House of Parliament, The House of Commons. Typically they are collectively called "Parliament".
- However, the political party which has the majority of seats (over half, being around 326 seats) forms the new Government, their leader becomes Prime Minister, and they form the Cabinet, select Ministers from that party who are chosen to be in charge of key areas of Government, such as Defense, Education, Welfare, etc..
- If no single party has the majority of seats, then it is a Hung Parliament. In a Hung Parliament there is no guarantee of prospective laws being passed, as a single party can not guarantee enough votes for their suggestions.
- If there is a Hung Parliament, parties have the ability to decide to co-ally, forming a coallition Government, whereby they together provide enough seats to have a majority. The leader of the smaller party in the coallition becomes the Deputy Prime Minister.
Note: The colours indicate the elected parties for each constituency in the 2010 General Election.
The gap in the centre of England is
Buckingham, which elected
John Bercow, who was selected as
Speaker of the House of Commons, and thereby does not count as being affilliated with a political party.
Leading Parties and their Leaders.
The Conservative Party (Tories) forms the current Coallition Government, having won the largest number of seats in the 2010 General Election, but not achieving majority.
In turn they formed a coallition with the Liberal Democrat Party, who had a minority of seats, but enough to ensure that the Tories and Lib Dems could hold a majority government together.
The Conservative Party is typically considered a right-wing party, although not usually considered to be extreme.
The Conservatives current Manifesto can be found here.
It's previous Prime Ministers have included notable figures such as;
Winston Churchill (PM during WWII)
Margaret Thatcher (First and only female PM) |  David CameronDavid Cameron was elected by his party as Leader in 2005. In 2010, Cameron became Prime Minister, alongside Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg. Cameron holds the parliamentary seat of Witney, and has done since 2001. Earlier in his career he was Shadow Secretary of State for Education, under then Tory party leader Michael Howard.
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 Ed MilibandEd Miliband was elected by his party as Leader in 2010, beating his brother David Miliband, and taking over the position from the resigned former PM, Gordon Brown. Miliband holds the parliamentary seat for Doncaster North, and has done since 2005. Earlier in his career he was Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, under Gordon Brown and later Harriet Harman.
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The Labour Party is currently the head of the Opposition, sitting in Parliament with the next highest number of seats. Labour previously held on to majority as the Government of the UK from 1997 until 2010.
The Labour Party is typically considered a left-wing party, although usually considered to be closer to centre than further extremes.
Labour's current Manifesto can be found here.
It's previous Prime Ministers have included notable figures such as;
Harold Wilson (Held Government for 4 different periods, some non-consecutively)
Tony Blair (Formed 'New Labour' and held PM for 3 consecutive periods. Handed over his PM status to Gordon Brown in 2007) |
The Liberal Democrats form the current Coallition Government, providing 57 seats to the Conservatives 306 in the 2010 General Election.
The Liberal Democrat party was formed in 1988 by a merger between the Liberal party and the Social Democrat party.
The Lib Dems are typically considered a Centrist party, usually focussed on social liberalism.
The Lib Dem Manifesto can be found here.
|  Nick CleggNick Clegg was elected by his party as Leader in 2007. In 2010, Clegg became Deputy Prime Minister, alongside Prime Minister David Cameron. Clegg holds the parliamentary seat of Sheffield Halam, and has done since 2005, having earlier held the MEP seat for the East Midlands, from 1999 until 2004.
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 Nigel FarageNigel Farage was elected Leader of his party in 2006 and held it until 2009, where he stood down in order to focus on campaigning for the Parliamentary seat of Buckingham, and was replaced by Lord Malcolm Pearson. Following Pearson's resignation in 2010, Farage again was elected as party Leader. Clegg does not currently hold a parliamentary seat in Westminster, but does hold the MEP seat for South East England, which he has done since 1999.
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The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is a non-major party that has had relatively few seats in Parliament.
It formed in 1993 with the aim of securing UK withdrawal from the European Union.
UKIP has had 2 candidates elected to Parliament, but has had more success in MEP (Member of European Parliament)elections, currently having 23 representatives, with at least one in 11 of the 12 UK MEP constituencies.
UKIP is typically considered a right-wing party, being generally concieved as being slightly more right-wing than the Conservative Party. UKIP has considerable focus on EU membership as well as stricter regulations and reforms on immigration.
The UKIP Manifesto can be found here. |
The Green Party is a non-major party that has had relatively few seats in Parliament, currently holding 1 seat, and 3 MEP seats
The party has a relatively long history, forming initially in 1973 as the PEOPLE party, then forming the Ecology Party in 1975, before settling as the Green Party in 1985.
It has however split peacefully into three smaller seperate parties, as of 1990, namely the Green Party of England and Wales, the Scottish Green party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland.
The Green Party is typically considered a left-wing party, with a clear focus on environmental issues, as well international humanitarian issues.
The Green Party Manifesto can be found here. |  Natalie BennettNatalie Bennett was elected Leader of her party in 2012. Bennett stood for the Green party in council elections twice, as well as for the Parliamentary seat of Holborn and St Pancras in 2010, but did not win any of the elections. She is standing for the Holborn and St Pancras seat again.
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 Nicola SturgeonNicola Sturgeon was elected as the Leader of her party in 2014, following the resignation of former Leader Alex Salmond, after the failure of the Scottish Independence Referendum to result in Scotland leaving the union. As a result, Sturgeon is currently the First Minister of Scotland. Sturgeon has not held a seat in the UK Parliament, but has held seats for the Scottish Parliament, for Glasgow (1999-2007), Glasgow Govan (2007-2011) and Glasgow Southside (2011-present). Sturgeon also held the office of Deputy Leader of the SNP under Alex Salmond from 2004 until 2014, and being Deputy First Minister of Scotland from 2007-2014.
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The Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) is a major party that has had relatively good success in Parliament, notably holding 6 seats in Parliament, but having majority in the devolved Scottish Parliament.
The SNP is typically considered a left-wing party, with a clear focus on Scottish Nationalism, notably the call for Scottish Independence via Referendum.
The SNP Manifesto can be found here. (note, this leads directly to an online .pdf) |
The Election Results can be viewed tonight live on BBC One, from 9:55pm (GMT+1).
