Next United Kingdom general election
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The Next United Kingdom general election is scheduled to be held by August 2029, in line with the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022. It will determine the composition of the House of Commons, which determines the government of the United Kingdom.
It will be the 59th general election to take place in the UK, and it will elect the 60th Parliament of the United Kingdom since the 1801 co-option of the Parliaments of Great Britain and Ireland.
Electoral system[edit]
General elections in the United Kingdom are organised using first-past-the-post voting, which is provisionally what will be used for this election.
Voting eligibility[edit]
In order to vote in the general election, one must be:[1]
- on the Electoral Register,
- aged 18 or over on polling day,
- a British citizen, a Commonwealth citizen (with leave to remain or not requiring it) or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland,
- a resident at an address in the United Kingdom (or a British citizen living abroad), and
- not legally excluded from voting (for example a convicted person detained in prison or a mental hospital, or unlawfully at large if they would otherwise have been detained, or a person found guilty of certain corrupt or illegal practices)
Individuals must be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day. Anyone who qualifies as an anonymous elector has approximately five working days before polling day to register. A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) may be able to register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, but can only vote in one constituency at the general election.
Date of the election[edit]
Under the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022, the Prime Minister has the power to call an election during the five-year length of a parliamentary session. If the Prime Minister chooses not to call an election, then parliament is automatically dissolved 5 years after the day it first met.[2] The next parliament will meet on the 9th July 2024, therefore parliament would dissolve on the 9th July 2029 if it were not dissolved earlier.
Under the Electoral Registration and Administration Act 2013 parliament would be dissolved 25 working days before the general election.[3] However, it is convention for a general election to take place on a Thursday and therefore it is likely that it would occur no later than 9 August.
References[edit]
- ^ "Types of election, referendums, and who can vote". GOV.UK. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
- ^ Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022 (legislation.gov.uk), section 4 "Automatic dissolution of Parliament after five years"
- ^ "General election timetable 2015". parliament.uk. UK Parliament. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
