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Business News/ Opinion / Blogs/  A very British election
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A very British election

Seven facts you didn't know about voting in the British election

British Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: AFP Premium
British Prime Minister David Cameron. Photo: AFP

“As the election approaches, intrigue becomes more active, agitation more lively and more widespread. The entire nation falls into a feverish state; the election is then the daily text of public papers, the subject of particular conversations, the goal of all reasoning, the object of all thoughts, the sole interest of the present."

In the age of non-stop news coverage and passionate social media political debates, it might seem these lines are characteristic of the present times, especially during elections.

Except that these words were written in 1835 by French political thinker Alexis de Tocqueville in his famous book Democracy in America. Tocqueville was describing the “crises of elections" in the US.

Clearly, as far as election hysteria goes, nothing much has changed.

Every election in every democracy is now a game changer, historic, the biggest election ever.

And so it is with the general elections in the UK which are to take place tomorrow. A good time then to look at what is common to elections in the UK and other democracies, and what are uniquely British electoral idiosyncrasies:

1) Her Majesty does not vote: The Queen and her family don’t vote or stand for election. As head of the state, the Queen has to be politically neutral, so she can’t really say if she wants the Tories to win or not. Read more here.

2) If David Cameron wins...: Remember when several Indians asserted that they would leave the country if Narendra Modi became the prime minister? Turns out making such claims is something of a fad in the UK too. Paul O’Grady, English comedian and actor, has said that if the Conservatives win the election, he will leave Britain and move to Venice. His exact words were, “I can’t live under this bloody government any more. I am going to get a house on the Lido in Venice. I have paid a fortune in tax and I will say ‘you can have that mate’."

3) King Arthur is up for election: Arthur Uther Pendragon, born John Timothy Rothwell, is standing as an independent from Salisbury. And he claims he is the reincarnation of King Arthur. Rothwell has to be the most interesting candidate in the British election, not least because he carries a sword called Excalibur. To read about other such colourful candidates, click here.

4) They always vote on a Thursday: General elections in the UK are always held on the first Thursday of May. While there is no law that elections have to be held only on a Thursday, it is something of a long-standing convention. The last time a general election in the UK wasn’t held on Thursday was in 1931, when it was held on a Tuesday. There is not much clarity about why Thursday was chosen but there are several theories. One says that elections aren’t held over the weekend because Friday is pay day in the UK and many people would use their pay to get drunk and wouldn’t vote over the weekend. Another theory is that keeping the election on Sunday might run the risk of voters getting influenced at Sunday sermons.

5) Ballot papers: The UK still uses ballot papers for voting. Each polling booth is supposed to have “sharpened pencils" for voters to mark their choice on the ballot paper. In addition, it must be ascertained if the “string attached to the pencils (is) long enough for the size of ballot papers and to accommodate both right-handed and left-handed voters".

6) Who can vote? In most countries, voting rights are determined and restricted by citizenship. However, in the UK, a non-British citizen can vote in a general election if he or she is Irish or a qualifying Commonwealth citizen. More details here.

7) Parliamentary voting: This has nothing to do with the general election but just more evidence that the British are serious sticklers of tradition. When a vote has to take place in the House of Commons (the lower House of Parliament), the Speaker of the House announces the vote, after which members of Parliament (MPs) present have eight minutes “to move in to one of two rooms — the ‘aye’ or the ‘no’ room. When the time is up the doors are locked and the MPs line up to be counted." It’s supposed to be quite a scramble for the correct room.

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Published: 06 May 2015, 10:30 AM IST
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