Election in Great Britain: How an electoral system helped Labour win

Easily explained

After 14 years, the British have voted out their conservative government. The Tories achieved their worst election result since their foundation in 1834. The Labour Party now holds a majority in the British House of Commons. Labour gained almost two percentage points in the vote and received almost 34 percent of the vote. Despite this, the party won two thirds of the seats in the House of Commons. How does this fit together?

Two electoral systems in Europe

This is due to the electoral law. There are two different electoral systems in Europe: In countries such as Germany and Austria, people vote according to proportional representation. The number of seats a party is given depends on the percentage of votes it receives among the population, so that the needs of the population are represented and taken into account as widely as possible in parliament.

In countries such as Great Britain, Spain, Italy and France, voting is based on the majority voting system. The number of constituencies depends on the number of seats to be awarded. In a constituency, the candidate with the most votes always wins. It does not matter how high or low the percentage of the total votes is. For example: In a constituency with three candidates, the candidate with the most votes wins a direct mandate – regardless of whether the share of the vote is 50 or 25 percent of the total vote. The votes for the challengers are lost.

Incidentally, Great Britain is the only country in Europe where a single ballot is sufficient for this. In France, for example, the candidates with the fewest votes are eliminated in several rounds until one candidate receives an absolute majority. The aim is to establish a clear parliamentary government majority for a party or coalition of parties.

Majority voting in Great Britain: advantages and disadvantages of the system

Governments in countries with majority voting are considered stable because the balance of power is fixed after the election and no lengthy coalition negotiations take place. The governing party usually has an absolute majority in parliament for the entire legislative period. In addition, the system is considered to be close to the people because the representatives are elected directly by the population in the respective constituency.

However, the electoral system has also been criticized as being unfair because smaller parties have little chance of winning seats and parts of public opinion and minorities are excluded. Social interests are also less represented and discussed because the governing party holds the majority of parliamentary seats. In two-party systems such as in Great Britain, France or Italy, the electoral system leads to factional struggles.

A little fun fact: An alternative to the majority voting system has existed in Europe for just over a hundred years. Belgium was the first country in Europe to introduce proportional representation in 1889.

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