There could be some important changes to UK elections very soon

[Harry Hayfield]

1) Dissolution of Parliament

The current constitutional convention is that the Prime Minister can
request the Monarch to exercise her prerogative power to dissolve
Parliament. Dissolution will trigger a general election. At the end of a five year term, Parliament is automatically dissolved (under the Parliament Act
1911); and the Prime Minister will, by convention, ask the Monarch to
dissolve Parliament when it has passed a motion of no confidence in the
government. Otherwise, Parliament is only dissolved if the Monarch so
chooses and in practice, for over a hundred years, he or she has done this
whenever, and only when, the Prime Minister has requested it. This gives
the Prime Minister significant control over Parliament.

The Government believes that the convention should be changed so that the Prime Minister is required to seek the approval of the House of Commons before asking the Monarch for a dissolution. Any new arrangements would have to provide for the situation in which it proves impossible to form a government which commands the support of the House of Commons and yet Parliament refuses to dissolve itself.

2) Voting Day

Holding general elections on a working weekday puts the UK in a minority
among Western democracies.While the Netherlands, Denmark, Ireland,
the US and Canada have elections on weekdays, the great majority of
other European countries hold elections either at the weekend or on a
public holiday.

Every general election in England since 1945 has taken place on a Thursday, but the statutory requirement is only that a general election must be held on a week day. Prior to 1945, general elections took place on a variety of days; the last UK general election to take place on a weekend was on Saturday, December 14th 1918. Local elections are now required by law to be held on a Thursday but for a time elections to certain Urban District Councils were held on Saturdays.

The Government will therefore consult local authorities and others on the merits of moving the voting day for general and/or local elections from Thursday to the weekend, and on the best way to do this. Moving to weekends for either general or local elections would require legislation. The consultation will take into account the needs of religious groups, to ensure that those with religious objections to voting on a Saturday or Sunday have an opportunity to vote in a way that is consistent with their beliefs.

It will also consider whether weekend voting would be more costly than the current arrangements or if there might be a negative impact on turnout for local elections. This might be a particular issue if local and general elections were held close together but on separate days. These proposals would not affect elections to the devolved legislatures.

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.