There could be some important changes to UK elections very soon

[freek]

3) Voting Method

In line with the Government’s manifesto, it is carrying out a review of the
experience of the new voting systems established since 1997 to contribute
to the debate. The review will include information on the elections for the
Northern Ireland Assembly in March 2007 and for the National Assembly
for Wales and the Scottish Parliament in May 2007. It is anticipated that
the review will be completed by the end of this year.

Do you think that this will eventually result in abolition of FPTP? And will it become a system "Scotland-style" or "Northern Ireland-style" then?

[freek]

 The last election was actually held on a tuesday because the thursday was a public holiday (Ascension of Christ) and having two public holidays in a row was deemed inconvenient.

Als Angel of Death already mentioned, this year there were no elections in the Netherlands on the Tuesday before Ascension Day since we already had an early election last year November.

However, the last local elections (2006) were on a Tuesday, March 7. Every year on the second Wednesday of March, the orthodox Calvinists (the ones voting SGP) go to church to pray for a good harvest that year. Therefore, the SGP requested to have the election one day early. Apart from some voters not wanting to vote (or in the case of civil servants, work) on this day of prayer, there was another reason to move the elections. In quite a lot of towns, polling stations are in churches, or buildings owned by a church. A lot of these were not available on Wednesday March 8.