The 2015 UK general elections will elect the 56th Parliament of the United Kingdom. Some FAQs and quirks of the world’s oldest working democracy.
- There are 650 Members of Parliament, but the House of Commons can only seat 427 members
- The Queen in practice can vote, but it will be considered unconstitutional.
- A person needs only 10 people in their constituency to sign their nomination form to stand as UK MP
Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan visited Leicester in the UK to support the election campaign of Indian-origin MP Keith Vaz who was officially nominated as the local Labour Party candidate for the upcoming polls (File Image)
- UK elections are held on Thursdays. This is a convention rather than a legal requirement, although the Fixed-term Parliaments Act now provides for general elections to be held on the first Thursday in May every five years. One theory about the Thursday origins is that people were not paid until Fridays and so holding polls on Thursdays ensured they were not too drunk to vote.
- Orkney and Shetland is the most northerly parliamentary constituency in the UK. It is closer to Oslo than it is to Westminster
- The smallest constituency is Islington North in London
- There were only 148 women MPs in the last parliament. Since 1918 there has been a total of 370 female MPs. While 502 male MPs were elected in 2010 alone.
- This year, there are 1,036 women standing for election. That’s 26% of candidates – the highest ever percentage of female candidates at a UK general election
- A member of the House of Lords cannot vote
(File Image: AP)
- A citizen of EU living UK, convicted prisoner, person found guilty of electoral fraud in the last five years and any person found subject to ‘legal incapacity’ which impairs their judgement are barred from casting their ballot
- Unlike India, there is no use of EVMs, UK elections still cast their vote on paper ballots
(File Image: AP)
- Unlike many other nations, the UK has no single constitutional document. This is sometimes expressed by stating that it has an uncodified or “unwritten” constitution
(With Agency Inputs)
- TAGS
- UK Elections
- UK General Elections 2015
- United Kingdom
Arijit Banarji