Help please with Voting Post Reply

[ladiorange]

Hi there,

I was born in England to two British parents however grew up abroad and have never been taught about the British electorate process.

I grew up in the States where you can directly vote for the President.

I understand in order to vote for the Prime Minister, you have to vote for the leader of the party and would have to be registered for that party.

My question is, could I register to be both a Conservative and a Labour voter so that I can vote for the "leader" of the party, that is, the next likely Prime Minister?

[tooposhtopush]

Sort of but no!

The way we choose prime ministers is...

1. we have a general election every five years and before an election parliament is dissolved so that every MP (member of parliament) loses their seat

2. you then vote based on where you live for individual candidates e.g. Rosena Allin-Khan won the election for Tooting in May

3. MOST (but not all) MP's are also members of a political party. So Rosena is a member of the labour party

4. when all the votes have been cast the candidates with the most votes in the various areas are "returned" as MP's. So you could have a labour persion in Totting, a conservative in Kensington or a Green party person in Brighton.

5. It is possible, but rare, for an independent to be elected, that is someone who is not a member of a party. It's very rare as most people vote for their preferred party first and person second

6. The party with the most seats (MPs) in parliament then form a government. The leader of that party is the prime minister.

So it's very different to the US.

You can only vote for a person in your area. That person may be linked to a political party and if that party gets a majority then their leader will be the prime minister.

What this means if you can't VOTE for a prime minister.

Now where it gets EVEN more complicated is that the way the parties choose their leaders is different. Labour leaders are chosen with influence from trade unions and for conservatives (I think) it's a selection process run by party members and more senior conservative members but I could be wrong

hope this helps!

[ladiorange]

Hi there, yes, thank you for that info. I am aware that the party in power is related to how many MPs of that party have been voted in to being MPs.

I guess my question is in regards to the leader of the party.

I understand that David Cameron became leader of the Conservative party because the general population who had registered as Conservative and voted had voted him in.

As I would like to vote for the leader of each of the two major parties, I wanted to understand if I could register to vote for each party so that I could vote for the leader of each party.

Do you know if this is possible?

[hjm]

I don't see why not. You'd have to become a member of both the Conservative and Labour parties and pay the required fee for each, but I don't think there is anything stopping you from joining both. My understanding is that you have to be a member for 3 months before you can vote in a leadership election though, so you may be too late to vote for Cameron's successor

[ladiorange]

Thanks for this info

[IrenaP]

My understanding is the same as Hjm. Become a member of the party. At this point, as you know, it's crucial to get the right leaders in both parties. Remember Jeremy Corbyn was voted in by the Labour Party which gained a huge membership because you/ anyone could join for £3. Based on his electorate, he now thinks he has much more credibility than he does.
Good question about joining both parties though!

[marmarzet]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news - but no. See p9 http://labourlist.org/wp-content/upload ... gA7HHxVJpA