General Elections in United Kingdom

Resources

See Also

Further Reading

• General Elections in the Encyclopedia of Britain
• General Elections in the Osborn’s Concise Law Dictionary
• General Elections in the Halsbury’s Laws of England
• General Elections in the Stroud’s Judicial Dictionary of Words and Phrases
• General Elections in the Jowitt’s Dictionary of English Law
• General Elections in the New Oxford Companion to Law
• General Elections in the Words and Phrases Legally Defined
• General Elections in the Oxford Dictionary of Law

General Elections in the History

General elections must take place every five years and each constituency of the United Kingdom decides who will represent them as an MP in Westminster. The Party who secures the majority of seats then becomes the governing party. If no party secures a majority then the party that secured the most seats may govern or a number of parties may join together to form a coalition (as with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in 2010). All of the votes happen on the same day and close by 10pm. The results are declared one by one and usually by the morning the winning party is declared.

General elections Meaning, as used in the UK Parliament

A general election is when the voters of the country cast their votes to elect Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons.