单击此处编辑母版标题样式,单击此处编辑母版文本样式,第二级,第三级,第四级,第五级,*,The Electoral System,-,Britain and the United States,BuckinghamPalace,Electoralsystem:UK,InEngland,electionshavebeenusedasaparliamentaryprocesssincethe13thcentury.Thesecretballotwasadoptedin1872andfullequalvotingrightswonforwomenin1928.Allregisteredmembersofthepublicaged18andovermayvoteinparliamentaryelections.TheBritishHouseofCommonsiselectedforamaximumoffiveyears;theprimeministercancallageneralelectionatanytime.,THELISTING,Thecallingofanelection,theelectionwrit,By-elections,Nomination ofcandidates,Election campaigns and expenses,Corruptpractices,The parliamentary franchise,The poll,Disputed elections,Effectsof thefirst-past-the-postsystem,Electoral behaviour in Britain,The calling ofan election,theelection writ,The royal proclamation announcing the dissolutionof Parliamentand the summoning ofa newParliament isthe authorization forthe writs fora general election.,The decision to dissolve Parliamentis made by the sovereign onthe advice ofthe prime minister.Under the ParliamentAct 1911 the maximumduration of aParliament isfive years.,On average,since 1900 elections have beenheld betweenevery three and fouryears.On twooccasions in the 20thcentury two elections havebeen held in one year:in 1910 and1974.,By-elections,A writfor a by-election isissuedby theclerk of the Crown onreceipt of the Speakers warrant.A by-electionmust be heldnot less than11 or more than 21 days after the issue ofthe writ.,Nomination ofcandidates,The House of Commonsconsists of 659 members,each representinga single-member constituency.Eachcandidate must be nominatedby a proposer,a seconder,and eight other electors.Inpractice,theoverwhelmingmajority of candidates are nominated by politicalparties.Furthermore,the majorityof thepartycandidates arenominated bythe Conservative,Labour,and Liberal Democrat parties.,Elizabeth,Election campaigns and expenses,The election expensesof each candidate are strictly controlled.The purposesof election expensesare also strictly controlled and all expenses must be declaredand published.All electionliterature must include thename and address ofthe publisherand ofthe printer.Each candidateis allowed,however,to sendone electoralcommunicationfree to everyelector in the constituency.,Corruptpractices,In earlier times British electionswere notoriously corrupt,but the introduction ofthe secret ballot in1872 and thepassingof theCorrupt and IllegalPractices Act1883 have virtually eliminated corruption.A person found guilty of acorruptor illegal practiceis disqualified fromvotingfor five yearsin a parliamentary election.In contrastto therest ofthe UK,however,examples of personationand intimidation havebeen fairly common in Northern Ireland.,The parliamentary franchise,To qualify asan elector ina parliamentary election ina particular constituency apersonmust beresident in that constituency on the annual qualifyingdate(10 October),bea British citizen ora citizen ofthe Republic of Ireland,ofat least 18 years ofage(21before1969),and not be subject to any legal disqualification.,The electoralregister is compiledannually and comes into force on 15February following the qualifyingdate of10 October.Lists ofelectors arepublicly displayed toenablevotersto ensure that theirnameshave been included.,Windsdor Castle,The poll,Since the general election of 1918pollingor voting hastakenplace in all constituencieson thesame day.Prior to this,polling was spread overthree to fourweeks.,Votersare provided with polling cards which direct themto specifiedpollingstations located indifferent parts of the constituency.The pollingstations openat 7 a.m.andclose at 10 p.m.,Disputed elections,If it is alleged thatthe elected candidate is disqualified from sitting in Parliament,orthat acandidate hasengagedin bribery,corruption,orintimidation ofelectors,orthat people ineligible to vote havevotedin theelection,the case isreferred to anelection court.Thisconsists of two HighCourt judges who may,according tothe evidence,declarethe electionvoid ordeclarethe candidatewith the nexthighest number of votes elected.In the past,disputedelections werenot uncommon,but they arenow comparatively rare and are mostly concerned with alleged disqualificationof thesuccessful candidate.,Effectsof thefirst-past-the-postsystem,The simple first-past-the-post system of voting has an important effect on electionssinceit is possiblein a given constituency fora candidate to be elected with only a relative majorityof votes.This can,of course,only occur wherethereare three or more candidates,but since this is not uncommon,such results are not rare.,Electoral behaviour in Britain,Electoral behaviour in Britain is characterized by a considerable degree of homogeneity andthe movementof support(orswing)from one party to another at a general electionis usually maintainedfairlyuniformly over the whole country.,The White House,Elections in the United States,The system isa product notonly ofAmerican politics but alsoof thedevelopment oftechno