1. Electoral Systems

2. Why do we have elections?

3. Should all citizens be allowed to vote?

4. What is happening ?

7. Elections are central to Democracy- The allow people COLLECTIVELY to decide who should govern them. Democracies should be free from CORRUPTION * Who can we elect ?

8. What do voters hope to gain from elections? A new Government? Manifesto promises fulfilled? A representative who will listen to their views? “Listen to the people” Democracy is “Government of the people by the people and for the people”

9. The method used to decide who our representatives Will be is called an Different types of Electoral Systems are used in different countries

10. UK is divided up into areas Called In each constituency the electorate Use their first vote to vote or a candidate of their choice. The Candidate with the most votes wins in the Constituency and becomes an MP. He/She wins a Constituency seat.

11. The voting system in the UK – 1. This map of the UK shows each of the 646 constituencies that are represented by a single MP in the House of Commons. Each one contains roughly 67, 000 constituents. The results shown are for the General Election held in 2000.

12. How to vote Cross on ballot paper for candidate of your choice vote in constituencies candidate with more votes than anyone else wins

13. Constituency Result Winning candidate has more votes than anyone else all other candidates ‘lose’ majority = 1st - 2nd

14. Aberdeen Central 2001

15. Map of The United Kingdom Political Map of The United Kingdom

16. Political Map of The United Kingdom 2005 General Election What is the Governments majority?

18. National Results 2001 2005