The First Past the Post System

Elections in the UK

The UK is a representative democracy, where every five years, the electorate has to vote and elect a new Parliament.

There are 635 MPs in Parliament, but there are some proposals that have been put through to reduce that number to 600. There have also been proposals that the government should make almost all constituencies have a similar electorate, to reduce differences in size.

The Workings of FPTP

Each constituency has to elect one MP using the FPTP election system. It happens this way:

• Each voter who is registered on the electoral register votes either on polling day at a local polling station or via post. They also have one more option, which is to have a proxy vote on their behalf.
• Voters have to put an X against the candidate of their choice and then put their vote into a ballot box.
• This is known as a secret ballot, because the paper cannot be easily associated with a specific voter, which is important so that people are not pressurised or victimised because they have or haven’t voted a certain way.

The candidate with the most votes wins. This simplicity is a double edged sword because for one, there’s no bickering about who has won, and besides, it’s very easy to count. It’s just an…