Issues: Politics and Social Responsibility

Ways of Electing Governments

Members of Parliament and Councillors are elected by the first past the post system. This means the person who gets the most votes in an election wins, even if they do not get the majority of the votes.

Members of the European Parliament and members of the Scottish and Welsh Regional Assemblies get elected according to proportional representation. This means that the number of people who get elected from each party represents the number of votes that party got. It means the smaller parties, who would never win in the first past the post system, even if they got 25% of the vote, can be represented in Government.