Voting, electoral (2), sovereign (2), election, residence, recommendations, elections, approved, electorate, voters.

1. On first arriving in Britain she applied for a/an.........................permit for one year.

2. The register of electors is also known as the.....................................roll.

3. TV plays an important part in modern.............................campaigns.

4. Voters must show which candidate they choose at an election by putting a cross on their «ballot paper» or «.......................................paper».

5. Nearly all British citizens over the age of 18 are members of the...................

6. The UK Parliament exercises..................................power.

7. In the British constitution the Queen in Parliament is the legislative.........................

8. Many British.......................are in favour of changing the .................... system.

9. Parliament ...............................the.......................of the special Commission last week.

10. Direct...........................to the European Parliament are held every five years.

5. Put the correct word in the crossword grid. If you put it correctly, you’ll get a word on the first line that is frequently used in the text above.

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12

1. ... don’t have the right to vote.

2. The returning ... announces the result.

3. The voters must tell the clerks their ...

4. The party which wins the greatest number of ... in Parliament takes power.

5. Boxes with ballot papers are usually taken to a ... .

6. The liberal Democrats want to ... Proportional Representation.

7. The winning candidate may get even 10% of the ... votes.

8. Some critics say that the existing election system is ... .

9. The group of all people who have the right to vote in an election is called ...

10. A ... has to be sent to each constituency when the Returning Officer makes provisions for the holding of the elections.

11. The ... who gets most votes in a constituency wins the seat in Parliament.

12. A general election is held every five ... .

6. Use information you have learnt in the text and the instruction given below to decide if the vote is valid.

Vote for one candidate only
1	EWENS Joan (known as Penny) Ewens 3 Holmwood Drive, Leeds LS6 4NF Social and Liberal Democrat
2	LORD Clive Richard Lord 44 Upper Batley Low Lane, Batley West Yorkshire WF17 OAP Green Party U.K.	X
3	McGOWAN Michael McGowan 3 Grosvenor Terrace, Otley West Yorkshire LS21 1HJ The Labour Party Candidate
4	TWEDDLE John Wilfred Tweddle 9 Barrowby Avenue, Austhorpe Leeds LS15 8QD The Conservative Party Candidate
INSTRUCTIONS TO THE VOTER Vote for one candidate only. Put no other mark on the ballot paper or your vote may not be counted. Mark a cross (X) in the box on the right hand side of the ballot paper opposite the name of the candidate you are voting for.

7. Complete the following dialogue.

1........................................................................................................................

2. Every British citizen aged eighteen years or over who is not serving a sentence of imprisonment and is not a peer is eligible to be placed on the electoral register in a constituency.

1..........................................................................................................

2. Normally this involves residence in the constituency on a certain day but members of the armed forces and British citizens who live abroad but have been registered within the previous five years can be entered on the register.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. Though election law puts strict limits on expenditure during an election campaign to prevent bribery and corruption, it is very expensive to fight an election, particularly as national propaganda does not count towards election expenses.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. The Labour and Conservative parties draw their financial support mainly from the trade unions and industry respectively. The other parties have no such firm financial base and to that extent suffer a considerable electoral disadvantage.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. Their main disadvantage is , however, the British electoral system.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. Electors vote in their constituency and whichever candidate obtains most votes is elected MP, even if he or she obtains only one vote more than his or her nearest rival and only a small percentage of the total vote.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. This system works best when there are only two parties, though even then it is possible for a party to obtain more votes over the country as a whole, but have fewer seats in the House of Commons.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. It can be accounted for the fact that the support of a party may be unevenly distributed, so that it obtains big majorities in some seats and loses narrowly in others.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. It is the lack of correlation between votes and seats which has given a strong impetus to the call for a different system.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. A new electoral system would allow voters to express preferences between candidates so that if their first-choice candidate is not elected or has not received sufficient votes to be elected, their second–preference votes can help to elect that candidate.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. Yes, a candidate may be elected because more voters have put him as their second choice.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. This system gives more chance to a third party to win seats because its candidate can be elected by being the voters’ second choice.

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. If this system were adopted in the UK it would be very unlikely that either of the two main parties would win an overall majority of seats (i.e. more seats than all other parties combined) and this would have a profound effect on who would form the government

1. ..........................................................................................................

2. You are welcome.

8. Written Practice.

Write a paragraph describing general elections in the United Kingdom and explain the difference between the election procedure in the United Kingdom and in your country.