"Office imposes ""Purdah"" before elections. This is a period of roughly six weeks in which Government Departments are not allowed to communicate with members of the public about any new or controversial Government initiatives (such as modernisation initiatives, and administrative and legislative changes). Voting ends at 10 pm (or once all voters present in a queue at/outside the polling station at 10 pm have cast their vote). Presiding officers are responsible for sealing ballot boxes in polling stations (election and polling agents appointed by candidates can also apply their own seals to the boxes) and transporting them 'directly and without"
"still occasionally held on days other than Thursday. From 1997 to 2015, general elections occurred on the same days as the annual scheduled Local Government elections, however this ended in 2017 with the local elections on 4th May and the general election on 8th June. Election Day (United Kingdom) Election Day in the United Kingdom is by tradition a Thursday. Polls in the United Kingdom open at 7:00 and close at 22:00. It has been suggested that this tradition arose as the best of several circumstances: Friday pay-packets would lead to more drunken voters on Fridays and weekends; having the"
"Election Day (United Kingdom) Election Day in the United Kingdom is by tradition a Thursday. Polls in the United Kingdom open at 7:00 and close at 22:00. It has been suggested that this tradition arose as the best of several circumstances: Friday pay-packets would lead to more drunken voters on Fridays and weekends; having the election as far after a Sunday as possible would reduce the influence of Sunday sermons; many towns held markets on Thursdays, thus the local population would be travelling to town that day anyway. Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, all future General Elections shall take"
"a consequence, some call Thursday ""thirstday"" or ""thirsty Thursday"". In the United Kingdom, all general elections since 1935 have been held on a Thursday, and this has become a tradition, although not a requirement of the law — which merely states that an election may be held on any day """"except Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom and any day appointed for public thanksgiving and mourning."""" Additionally, local elections are usually held on the first Thursday in May. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 removed Maundy Thursday as an excluded"
"for almost 14 years, between 24 August 1931 and 26 July 1945, although its components changed significantly during that period. Currently, all British Parliamentary elections are invariably held on a Thursday. The last general election not held on a Thursday was the 1931 election, which was held on Tuesday 27 October. Prior to this, it was common to hold general elections on any day of the week (other than Sunday), and until the 1918 general election, polling (and the declaration of results) was held over a period of several weeks. On rare occasions, polling in an individual constituency may be"
"place on the first Thursday in May every five years, barring special circumstances. Before the Fixed Terms Parliament Act 2011, a General Election in the UK would follow the dissolution of Parliament by the Monarch on the advice of the Prime Minister of the day. The Prime Minister thus had the power to choose the date of the election. Now, the decision is taken by two-thirds majority of the House of Commons, or is legally determined through the act as the first Thursday in May every 5 years. Thursday has been the customary day to hold elections since the 1930s."
"be held on the same day. There has been a convention since the 1930s that general elections in Britain should take place on a Thursday; the last general election to take place on any other weekday was that of 1931. The five-year limit on the time of a Parliament can be varied by an Act of Parliament implemented by several bodies. This was done during both World Wars; the Parliament elected in December 1910 was prolonged to November 1918, and that elected in November 1935 lasted until June 1945. The House of Lords has an absolute veto on any Bill"
"years with a general election it is usual practice to hold both general and local elections on the same day. In 2004, for the first time, local elections were held on the same day as European elections, and London Mayoral and Assembly elections. The date was referred to as 'Super Thursday'. Unlike general elections, for local elections there is no legal requirement as to when the count should begin after the close of poll. For this reason, some returning officers have decided to store the sealed ballot boxes overnight at the central counting location and begin the count the next"
"Parliament is elected, in order to allow the elections to be held simultaneously. In all cases, the elections were held on Thursdays. By-elections and other UK elections are also traditionally held on Thursdays though they can be held on other days – in particular when they would otherwise clash with bank holidays. The last Parliamentary by-election not to be held on a Thursday was the Hamilton by-election of 31 May 1978. This was held on a Wednesday as the returning officer wished to avoid a clash with the opening game of the 1978 FIFA World Cup. Today, council by-elections are"
"Elections in the United Kingdom There are six types of elections in the United Kingdom: elections to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, elections to the European Parliament, local elections, mayoral elections and Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Within each of those categories, there may be by-elections as well as general elections. Elections are held on Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Since the passing of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for general elections, all six types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to parliament and the"
"papers, which in turn must be no more than six working days after the next parliament was summoned. Therefore, the latest date the election could have been held on was 22 May 1997 (which happened to be a Thursday). British elections (and referendums) have been held on Thursdays by convention since the 1930s, but can be held on other working days. Prime Minister John Major called the election on Monday 17 March 1997, ensuring the formal campaign would be unusually long, at six weeks (Parliament was dissolved on 8 April). The election was scheduled for 1 May, to coincide with"
"government is not able to prematurely dissolve the legislature at will) are held by law on the 4th Sunday of May. Election day Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections are always held on a weekday. However, some countries, or regions within a country, which hold elections on a weekday declare election day a public holiday. Countries which permit absentee ballots, early ballots or postal votes"
"general elections). The final number of eligible voters was published after 9 pm on Thursday 23 June 2016 by the Electoral Commission. The following shows both the provisional figures and the final figures in heavy bold brackets. The result was declared by Chief counting officer (CCO) and the then chair of the Electoral Commission Jenny Watson at Manchester Town Hall on Friday 24 June 2016 at 0720 BST after all 382 voting areas and the 12 regions of the United Kingdom had all decleared their results. Of the voting areas a total of 263 returned majority votes in favour of"
"in the event of the House of Commons passing a vote of no confidence or an ""early election"" motion, the latter having to be passed by a two-thirds majority. The first use of this procedure was in April 2017, when MPs voted in favour of Theresa May's call for a snap election to be held that June. All elections in the UK are held on a Thursday. The Electoral Commission is unsure when this practice arose, but dates it to 1931, with the suggestion that it was made to coincide with market day; this would ease voting for those who"
"present day. Under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, the next general election is scheduled to be held no later than 5 May 2022. Most opinion polls cover only Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland as its 18 seats are contested by a different set of political parties. Poll results are listed in the table below in reverse chronological order. Most pollsters only include responses from within Great Britain, excluding Northern Ireland; however, some, such as Survation, do include Northern Ireland. The table below indicates whether a poll is Great Britain (GB)-only or United Kingdom (UK)-wide. The highest percentage figure in each"
"2017 United Kingdom general election The 2017 United Kingdom general election took place on Thursday 8 June 2017, having been called just under two months earlier by Prime Minister Theresa May on 18 April 2017 after it was discussed in cabinet. Each of the 650 constituencies elected one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons. The governing Conservative Party remained the single largest party in the House of Commons, but lost its majority resulting in the formation of a minority government with a confidence and supply arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) of Northern Ireland. The Conservative"
"applied for the United Kingdom general election, 1885. Elections (Hours of Poll) Act 1885 The Elections (Hours of Poll) Act 1885 (48 & 49 Vict. c. 10) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It became law on 28 April 1885. It provided that at every parliamentary election and municipal election, the poll was to remain open from 8 o'clock a.m. to 8 o'clock p.m. It did not apply in places where no poll was held, or in elections to University constituencies. It repealed the Elections (Hours of Poll) Act 1884, and went into force at the"
"17 October 2017. The writs must be returned within 50 days of their issuance (save for any judicial recount or death of a candidate), which would have been Wednesday, 6 December 2017. Because polling day must be a Saturday and two weeks is generally required for the counting of special votes, the last possible date for the 2017 general election would have been Saturday, 18 November 2017. On 1 February 2017, Prime Minister Bill English announced that the election would be held on Saturday 23 September 2017. This will be the first election that both major parties, Labour and National"
"The Levellers proposed that elections be held on the first Thursday in every second March in The Agreement of the People in 1647. Historically, elections took place over the course of a four-week period until 1918. Election days were then as follows: and elections have been on Thursdays since then: Local elections in England and Wales are by statute held on the first Thursday in May. This has been changed in recent years: in 2001 they were delayed while an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was dealt with. Since 2004, local elections have also been delayed in years when the European"
"Election day Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections are always held on a weekday. However, some countries, or regions within a country, which hold elections on a weekday declare election day a public holiday. Countries which permit absentee ballots, early ballots or postal votes to be cast by mail before the election avoid the problem altogether by enabling voters to vote on a day that"
"day, a mere two hours after the closing of the poll stations. For the national elections in November of that same year, however, several polling stations decided to return to paper and red pencil because of security issues with the voting machines. Since then, most elections have been held using paper and pencil. The most recent election was the municipal election on 21 March 2018. The maximum parliamentary term is five years and elections are generally held about four years after the previous one. Regular elections, i.e. after the House of Representatives has fulfilled its term, take place in March."
"The Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was not due to report until 2018, and therefore this general election took place under existing boundaries, enabling direct comparisons with the results by constituency in 2015. To vote in the general election, one had to be: Individuals had to be registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day (22 May). Anyone who qualified as an anonymous elector had until midnight on 31 May to register. A person who has two homes (such as a university student with a term-time address but lives at home during holidays) may be registered"
"Next United Kingdom general election The next general election in the United Kingdom is scheduled to be held on 5 May 2022 under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The election may be held at an earlier date in the event of an early election motion being passed by a super-majority of two-thirds in the House of Commons, or a vote of no confidence in the government which is not followed by a vote of confidence within 14 days. Each parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom elects one MP to the House of Commons using the first-past-the-post voting system. In order"
"Next United Kingdom general election The next general election in the United Kingdom is scheduled to be held on 5 May 2022 under the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. The election may be held at an earlier date in the event of an early election motion being passed by a super-majority of two-thirds in the House of Commons, or a vote of no confidence in the government which is not followed by a vote of confidence within 14 days. Each parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom elects one MP to the House of Commons using the first-past-the-post voting system. In order"
"2004 United Kingdom elections Super Thursday is significant both in politics and in publishing. Many elections in the United Kingdom took place on ""Super Thursday"", 10 June 2004. The UK government used this opportunity to trial all-postal voting in both the local and European elections across four regions: North East, North West, East Midlands, and Yorkshire and the Humber. For more details, see here. The ruling Labour Party polled poorly in the local elections, and was beaten into third place, in terms of share of the vote, after the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats. They lost control of several"
"the government should hold elections on the same date as local elections on the first Thursday of May. Since World War II, only the 2015 general election was held on the latest possible date (7 May 2015), due to being the first general election at the end of a fixed-term Parliament. The following elections were called by a voluntary decision of the government less than four years after the previous election: The following election was called by a vote in the House of Commons resulting in a two-thirds majority of MPs, under the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011:"
"Dissolution of the Parliament of the United Kingdom The Parliament of the United Kingdom is dissolved 25 working days before a polling day as determined by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011. This period was formerly 17 days, and the new 25-day period, operative for the first time in the General Election of 2015 (7 May), represents the longest United Kingdom election period without a Parliament since 1924. Importantly, the Act does not affect the Sovereign's power to prorogue Parliament, under the ""Supplementary provisions"" of the Act. Members of Parliament cease to be so, as soon as it is dissolved, and"
"However, on 18 April 2017, Prime Minister Theresa May said that she would seek to bring forward the general election to Thursday 8 June 2017, which the House of Commons approved on 19 April. For an early election to be held, two-thirds of the total membership of the House had to support the resolution. The Conservative Party went into the election defending its overall majority won in 2015 with the Labour Party as the leading opposition party both in terms of polling numbers and seats. Most opinion polls cover only Great Britain, as Northern Ireland seats are contested by a"
"to vote at both addresses, as long as they are not in the same electoral area, but can vote in only one constituency at the general election. On 18 May, ""The Independent"" reported that more than 1.1 million people between 18 and 35 had registered to vote since the election was announced on 18 April. Of those, 591,730 were under the age of 25. The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 introduced fixed-term Parliaments to the United Kingdom, with elections scheduled every five years since the general election on 7 May 2015. This removed the power of the Prime Minister, using the"
"lost Acton, Dudley and Meriden on 28 March 1968, all to the Conservatives. Occasions since 1945 when two seats have fallen are: British Parliamentary elections are invariably held on a Thursday. The last by-election not held on a Thursday was the Hamilton by-election, 1978, held on Wednesday 31 May due to a World Cup opening match on the Thursday evening. Due to an administrative oversight, the Manchester Exchange by-election, 1973 was held on Wednesday 27 June 1973. Prior to that, the last by-elections not held on a Thursday were the Saffron Walden by-election, 1965 held on Tuesday 23 March, and"
"Day, Good Friday and Easter Monday, the Act therefore prevents the general election being held any later than Saturday, 10 April 2021. However, Article 16.3.1 of the Constitution of Ireland specifies that a general election must take place no later than 30 days after the dissolution of Dáil Éireann, and does not specify any excluded days. Therefore, the general election cannot be held later than Friday 9 April 2021. As methodologies and results differ, even where opinion polls are taken over the same dates, the results of the two most prolific polling companies have been graphed separately hereunder:<br> Next Irish"
"altered. Although this was widely dismissed as a conspiracy theory, some Leave campaigners advocated that voters should instead use pens to mark their ballot papers. On polling day in Winchester an emergency call was made to police about ""threatening behaviour"" outside the polling station. After questioning a woman who had been offering to lend her pen to voters, the police decided that no offence was being committed. The final result was announced on Friday 24 June 2016 at 07:20 BST by then-Electoral Commission Chairwoman Jenny Watson at Manchester Town Hall after all 382 voting areas and the twelve UK regions"
"the general election. On 10 March 2014, Prime Minister John Key announced that the election would take place on Saturday 20 September 2014. As in 2011, the Prime Minister announced the date early, although only six months in advance compared to the nearly ten months in 2011. Traditionally, the election date is a closely guarded secret, and announced as late as possible. A general election must take place every three years, and Parliaments generally run the full three-year term unless an early election is called or the election date is set to circumvent holding a by-election. Voting for the previous"