The parliamentary vote is the method of electing members of parliament in countries that use a Westminster system. This includes the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These countries use either a plurality (first past the post) electoral system or some form of proportional representation.
During a parliamentary election, you vote for the candidate who will represent your constituency in the House of Commons. Most candidates will be from a political party but independents may also stand. Each political party has a nominating officer who selects candidates to represent them at the election.
Once elected MPs choose the Prime Minister and department ministers to lead the government of their country. They are responsible to their parliamentary constituency and will usually serve for the length of one parliament, up to five years. During this time, if an MP leaves office early or dies then a by-election is held to find a replacement.
Some countries, such as the Netherlands, have strict rules on how much of a majority a party needs in order to govern. Other countries, such as the UK, have relaxed these rules in recent times.
In multi-member constituencies, the most common type of proportional voting is single transferable vote (STV). Voters mark their ballots with a series of ranked choices in order of preference from most to least preferred. Then the candidate with the most first preferences is ‘elected’, and their surplus votes are ‘transferred’ to voters’ second (and any subsequent) choices. This continues until a winning candidate has more votes than the other remaining candidates put together.
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