The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland - Elections, Political Parties
The right to vote is given to all citizens at the age of 18. Citizens vote in parliamentary and local elections and also in elections to the European Parliament. Each member of the House of Commons represents one parliamentary constituency. Registration of electors in compulsory and carried out annually. Candidates for election to Parliament or a council are normally chosen by the local parties.
The House of Common is elected for a maximum term of five years, reduced in 1911 from seven. At any time during those five years, the prime minister has the right to request the monarch to dissolve Parliament and call a general election.
A two-party system has existed in the United Kingdom since the late 17th century. From the mid-1920s the dominant groupings have been the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, despite the existence of smaller parties such as the Liberal Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Party.
The two-party system, together with uncertainty about the timing of a general election, has produced the British phenomenon of the Opposition. Its decisive characteristic is that it attempts to form an alternative government, ready at any time to take office, in recognition of which the leader of the Opposition is paid an official salary.
