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LIKE IRELAND WILL tomorrow, the UK goes to the polls today to cast their ballots in the European Parliament elections.
If Brexit had taken place as originally planned, these elections across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland today wouldn’t be taking place but the Westminster impasse and the woes of Theresa May’s government means the UK is still very much in the EU at this time.
Now, if and when the UK eventually leaves the EU, all the MEPs chosen by the British electorate today will no longer be members of the European Parliament.
But, these votes are seen as a crucial barometer of the sentiment of the British public. Nigel Farage’s newly-formed Brexit party has stormed ahead in the opinion polls, while the pro-remain Liberal Democrats are experiencing a similar surge in fortunes.
How, though, could a party come out of nowhere and potentially win more seats than all the establishment parties? It’s likely not going to happen here, but it could happen in the UK.
Here’s why.
D’Hondt system
So, with the Irish system, candidates are personally listed on the ballot along with the name of their party/or not if they’re an independent.
People list who they want to elect in order of preference first choice, second choice, third etc. These single transferable vote means that the worst-performing candidate in the first round of voting will have the ballots that chose them as their first choice transferred to the second choice and so on.
Every vote counted should then, in theory if people list all their preferences, go towards someone with no votes wasted on the person in dead last or the runaway winner.
England, Scotland and Wales will, on the other hand, use the D’Hondt system for electing members to the European Parliament. Such a closed list system is also used in the likes of Portugal, France, Spain and Germany.
In the UK, voters cast their ballot for parties rather than individuals. Voters choose the party they favour the most – rather than a specific candidate. And it’s just one vote, it cannot be transferred like in the Irish system.
So, on the ballot paper, it will list the parties’ names – with their candidates listed under the party name – and any independent candidate.
It’s up to the party to choose who gets the seats allocated to them by the electorate. There are 12 constituencies across the UK, with 73 MEP spots up for grabs.
It gets a bit more complicated from there – as highlighted in the images below – but the general principle is that the party with the highest votes get the most number of seats.
Brexit party hopes
This voting system does help to explain why such a new party like the Brexit party can surge ahead and potentially take the most seats.
When people are casting their ballots, they’re voting specifically for a party – not a person. While parties put people atop their lists that they think will appeal most to the electorate, it’s still a party someone is voting for.
Farage’s Brexit party has surged ahead in the opinion polls, on its very clear platform of being anti-EU and wanting the UK out of Europe as quickly as possible. If the polls are to believed, it has won wide support in the face of the ongoing Brexit impasse in Westminster.
Similarly, it was UKIP, a relatively small party who hadn’t fared well in Westminster elections, that won the most seats at the 2014 European Parliament. It received almost 27% of the popular vote.
Farage was at the helm of UKIP at the time, too, and ran an anti-EU campaign throughout.
Despite its strong performance in 2014, the party won just one seat in the 650-seat House of Commons in the 2015 General Election. Due to the electoral system for UK general elections, its vote share of 12.6% only gave it the solitary seat in Westminster.
While Labour and Conservatives dominate general elections, the European Elections are a different beast entirely.
Voting concludes today but, due to EU rules, we won’t have the first official results from anywhere including the UK and Ireland until 10pm on Sunday night.
Exit polls are similarly not expected until then, so it’ll be a long wait to see if Farage’s party have indeed won sufficient support to triumph with Brexit still looming over the UK.
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I bet Tommy Robinson will get elected.. And if he does it will absolutely monumental, the establishment will be shaking
@Chonky Racoon: the fact I didn’t know he was standing says it all about the media (and I pay attention to a lot of UK media)
But if he does get elected it just shows what a mess the UK is in.
@Chonky Racoon: hardly,
UK is leaving the EU.
It’ll just mean he is wasting tax payer money, the same tax payers who give out about the government wasting money.
Ironic really.
He’s no different to the people he claims to hate.
@Chonky Racoon: why would the establishment be shaking ? ..
@John Kelly: if he was to be elected, he’d be doing so without any platform whatsoever.. No financial backing, all after having his name dragged through the mud by media and far left puppets calling him nazi, racist, islamaphobe etc etc.. It will confirm what most already know, that the power is with people, not self serving politicians and the rest of them.. And it doesn’t matter how much propoganda you push out and how much your called racist nazi.. People will see past it.
@Chonky Racoon: And what is going to do in the EU Parliment if he is elected?
And as for the Far Left dragging through the mud, one could hardly call Farage and his Brexit Party Left Wing, and they want nothing to do with him, UKIP want nothing to do with him, The Conservatives want nothing to do with him. Not exactly the radical left.
@Chonky Racoon: It’s being a nazi that has him appealing to that segment of the voter which as Brexit has shown is substantial in the UK.
He won’t get to serve anyway since Brexit will likely have taken place before then, he’ll always have his milkshake moment as his day in the spotlight at least.
@Chonky Racoon: It. Is interesting that you appear to think that the possible election of a know thug and racist is a good thing because it might upset “the establishment”. Tommy gets bad press because he deserves it as his views are so hateful and reprehensible. If elected it would a great deal about the people who voted for holiness – none of it good. What’s to cheer about?
Does this basically mean that independents can’t run and the political parties have these seats sewn up. I wonder who put that system in place?
@Darren Byrne: The Anti-democratic Eu . They like their political establishment bought and paid for .
@Pl O’neill: Well since we don’t do it I doubt it and say your statement is a bit rubbish.
@Pl O’neill: Why is it you feel the need to blatantly Lie to try further your anti EU argument? If your argument is solid enough it should be able to stand on its own without lying.
@Pl O’neill: you’re getting tiring now. It’s a system freely chosen by the UK and a small number of other EU countries. The majority of EU countries incl Ireland prefer a different system. On another note, I find it odd that pro Brexit parties have the biggest campaigns. It’s almost as if their candidates really want to be elected to the EU for the next 5 years
@Pl O’neill: at it again I see PJ .. the EU is anti democratic now.. why are they having elections so ?
@Pl O’neill: oh fu#k our of Europe if you don’t like it… do my head in either you haven’t a clue what Ireland was like before we entered the EEC or just plain stupid
@Jack: so in your opinion no economic or social progress would ever have been made without the sainted EU. How on Earth does Switzerland and Iceland survive. A free trade area helps yes, but we don’t need the rapidly advancing EU political superstate.
@Jack: Facist .
@Valthebear: Iceland is a bad example
Actually the Brexit Party would win far mire seats if it was a first past the post system.
@Darius Guppy: not necessarily, a first past the post would have to have constituencies for each seat. You may find that Brexit Party hold a lot or even close to 100 percent of support in one or two but would have none in other areas. Otherwise a first past the post for all the UK’s seats voting by party would mean the Brexit Party would get them all.
@Darius Guppy: They wouldn’t. UKIP got nearly 4 million votes in a previous general election and got one seat. One! The U.K. first past the post system is as undemocratic as the rest of their backward democracy. House of Lords anyone. Unelected Head of State anyone (can’t be a Catholic by law either). No written Constitution.
@John R: that was in a general election, with far more constituencies. In the EU elections they would fair much better in a first past the post system.
I think with 20 odd candidates on the ballot paper, its gonna be a nightmare. I’d like to think its gonna eff up the FFG vote but it’s gonna be harder to find the others to vote for. The only hope is that the predominantly more loyal FFG voters are the older crowd who might find it all too confusing and mess up. The older crowd have their own houses and the last of the good pensions, thats all they care about. Thats my hope anyway. FFG have the country effed up for everybody else, only making themselves millionaires in leinster house while the rest of us pay for their mess, they really don’t deserve any votes.
And on martin, whats martin and FF doing about high insurance in this country? Absolutely nothing. The FF and FG party rivalry is the biggest scam this country has ever seen, the amount of damage these two parties have done to this country is incalculable over the last 100 years, as they collude to protect each other when they’re threatened. Current excuse for keeping themselves in power, brexit. Anyone else would break the country. Well, they’ve done it, and will do so again.
@Adrian: As one of the older crowd, I don’t find it too confusing – and I certainly won’t make the mistake of voting for FFG (or Lab, for that matter). And most of us who have our own houses and/or pensions care about more than ourselves – instead of being resentful about the older crowd having such things, we should all be fighting for houses and pensions for everybody.
@Tom Sheridan: Tom,
I am also one of the “older crowd” and was about to say almost word-for-word what you have said but you beat me to it! I’m sure we are not alone with our opinions within the “older crowd”.
@Tom Sheridan: Well said Tom.
Why is there a holding period for announcing the election results – is this so the EU can stick its nose in first?
@Martin Critten: once again showing your lack of knowledge when it comes to the EU. The EU elections are spread over 3 days to allow each member state to select which date is most favourable to them.
No wonder you are so Anti EU when you are being mislead by simple ignorance on the subject.
@Martin Critten: Not to mention we didn’t improve all that much for the first 20 years in the EEC .
The Eu is already checking whether this Election will have to be re-run as they don’t like what the electorate = Not Democracy .
@Pl O’neill: The EU has never rerun an election. They don’t hold or control referendum either, this is with the nation state.
@Pl O’neill: You deem the EU undemocratic, then tell us all what you deem to be democratic?
@Pl O’neill: If Ireland didn’t improve much in the first 20 years of membership despite all the EU transfer payments then look to Ireland as the reason why. We run our own country. We ran it badly for most of the 70 years after independence. The EU opened our minds. But it was slow. It was innate Irish conservatism which kept this country back. Not the EU. You’re like a grown up child who wants to blame Mammy and Daddy for everything that is wrong with their lives instead of taking responsibility.
Article describes the system in place for “England, Scotland and Wales”. It says nothing about the system used in Northern Ireland?
So they use this system and then first passed the post nationally. It feels like this all or nothing approach helps lead to their winner take all mentality and complete inability to find compromise.
Dierdre Clune is campagning on a “vote for Clune is a vote for Cork”.
The d’Hondt system takes away the local “ballymagashery” element.
The Communist party?
have your say