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How the UK electoral system works

On May 7 Britain is called to vote for the composition of the House of Commons, and by extension, for a new government.To elect the 650 members of the House of Commons, or lower house, the UK prime minister has to meet with the Queen before five years and a month have passed since the previous elections. The Queen then dissolves the Parliament and the new elections can begin. The elections for the new seats are held in the 650 territorial constituencies in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. About 60,000 electors in each constituency vote for their favorite candidate.The candidate with more votes gets a seat, and the leader of the party with the majority of seats automatically becomes the country’s Prime Minister and is called to form the government.If neither of the leading parties, Labour party or the Conservative party, obtains a majority, as it happened in 2010, the party with most seats can try to form a coalition government with the largest of the smaller parties, the Liberal Democrats.If there is no ground for a coalition however, a minority government could also be formed and the largest party, despite lacking a majority, could still see legislations get through.According to the Independent, in this 2015 elections, neither leading party looks like it will get a majority, and a coalition seems a necessary step. If David Cameron, UK current prime minister, wins, he will probably continue the coalition with the Liberal Democrats. If Labour party leader Ed Miliband wins, he will have to work with the Scottish National Party, with the Liberal Democrats and more likely with some of the small parties like the Greens, Plaid Cymru or the ones from Northern Ireland.