10. Election Petitions

Electors or candidates who wish to question the conduct or result of an elec­tion must do so by presenting an election petition which sets out the grounds of the complaint. The petition is considered, in public, by two judges. The election of the successful candidate can be declared void.

11. Parliamentary By-elections

By-elections take place when parliamentary seats fall vacant between general elections, following the death or resignation of an MP, or his or her elevation to the House of Lords. The timing of the by-election is normally decided by the party to which the former MP belonged. By-elections generally take place within three or four months of the vacancy arising. By-election campaigns receive extensive cover­age in the press and on radio and television. The results are much discussed by senior politicians and political commentators, who use the voting figures to argue about the likely result of the next general election and the popularity of the parties' policies.

12. Hung Parliament

A Parliament is considered to be hung if neither of the parties represented in it has an overall majority of at least 326 out of 651 seats. In a hung Parliament the Prime-Minister usually has the first move. He can try to cut a deal with enough mi­nority parties to ensure his government is not voted down an May 6 when it pres­ents its legislative program. If he cannot command enough support to hold on, he can tender his resignation to the queen. At this stage the queen is most likely to ap­point the leader of the opposition party as prime minister and give him the same op­portunity of cobbling together enough votes to form a government. A party leader can cut two kinds of deals with smaller parties:

- a formal coalition in which the smaller party would have seats in the cabinet and a role in making government policies

- a looser alliance in which the smaller party would agree not to vote down the government in return for certain policy concessions. If both leaders fail to reach agreements then the prime minister can ask for a disso­lution of Parliament and a new election.

Tasks

1. What kind of election do we call universal? Can the British type be called so? Give your reasons. Look in the dictionary the words Franchise and Suffrage — find what they mean and how they are used. Who do you call a suffragette? Find some historical facts describing the fight for universal suffrage in Britain.

2. Using the Reference Texts on Parties prepare one kind of publicity material in favour of one of the parties:

-a party manifesto

• an election address by the party's candidate

• election broadcast

• newspaper advertisement

• leaflet paster.