Discuss the Electoral system. The majority electoral system and its peculiarities

The parliamentary electoral system of Great Britain encourages the domination of two major political parties. For electoral purposes the United Kingdom is divided into 646 (2005) electoral districts, or constituencies (according to the number of members in the House of Commons). Each constituency has on an average about 60,000 people and each elects one member to the House of Commons. Members of Parliament are elected at a general election which is usually held every five years.

The candidates may be nominated by different parties, but the real contest is between the two big parties - the Conservative Party and the

Labour Party, though in recent years the Social-Liberal Democratic Party has become an important force in the country. In every constituency each of these two parties has a local organization, whose first task is to choose the candidate and then to help him conduct his election campaign.

All Britain's main political parties publish manifestos during general election compaigns. Such publications are the result of a considerable amount of work by senior party members in the period before elections are announced. They are intended to tell the electorate what the party would do if it formed the next government; they, therefore, cover party policy on a range of matters. If elected, parties can claim a popular mandate from the voters for policies contained in their manifestos.

Manifestos are usually launched by each of the parties at press conferences in the first week or so of the campaign. They have titles which are in the form of slogans, designed to sum up the parties' messages.

Manifestos normally open with forewords by the respective party leaders. They cover party policies in varying degrees of detail, but may also set out the parties' past achievements and attack the policies of their opponents.

Although in practice few people read copies of the parties' manifestos, those of the major parties receive extensive publicity in the newspapers and on television and radio. Their themes are also taken up in individual candidates' election addresses. Manifestos thus provide the basis for much of the general election campaign debate.

In a British election the candidate who wins the most votes is elected, even if he or she does not get as many as all the votes of the other candidates taken together. The practice is known as the simple majority electoral system.

As soon as the results of a general election are known, it is clear which party will form the government. The leader of the majority party becomes Prime Minister and the new House of Commons meets.