A general election is an opportunity for the people in every part of the UK to choose their MP. This person will represent a local area in the house of the commons for up to five years. Some local candidates for national politics parties, the candidate that receives the most votes becomes their MP.
UK General Election
The UK 2024 General Election is scheduled to be held on 4 July 2024, Thursday. It will be determined by the Government of the UK. The first such changes since before the 2010 general election, additionally it will be the first UK general election where physical forms of voter identification will be a legal requirement to vote at a polling station.
The announcement comes at Sunak’s meeting with his cabinet ministers at Downing street. The General election is scheduled for the second half of 2024, after 25 working days then allowed to prepare for the election, so the next election had to be held by 28 January 2025.
The maximum term of a parliament is five years from the day on which it was first met. The current parliament first met on the 17th December 2019 and would have automatically dissolved on Tuesday 17 December 2024.
Who is eligible to vote in UKs general election?
In a general election, each person has one vote. Under a system called first past the post, the candidate who gets the most votes becomes the MP for the area. There are eligibility criteria for voting in UK General Election:
- Anyone on the age of 18 or over on polling day can vote in the general election.
- You should be a British citizen.
- Not be legally excluded from voting.
- All UK citizens who live abroad can register to vote, where they previously resident or on the electoral roll as long as they are not legally excluded from voting.
- Members of the house of lords.
- If you have already registered and know that you will not be able to vote in person you can apply for a vote.
- You can register to vote if you have permission to enter or stay in the UK.
- You will need to prove your identity during the application process.
- If you applied for a vote before 31 October 2023, this has expired and you need to apply again.
- You have to show your documents like passports, driving licence, older or disabled person’s bus passes.
- You can use an out of date photo ID as long as you look the same.
- The deadline to apply for a voter authority certificate to use in the general election is 26 June, Wednesday.
How to register for the UK general election?
You normally need to register once, not for every election. You can use these services for register to vote in UK general election:
- Get on the register so you can vote in elections or referendums.
- Get on or off the open register.
- Update your name, address or your nationality by registering again with your new details if you live in the UK.
- If you move house, you should register to vote again.
- If you change your name for any reason, you can contact the electoral services team at your local council and request a change of a name.
Predictions of UK General Election
The future is never certain, but using their advanced modelling techniques, we can estimate the probability of the various possible outcomes at the next general election. Government probabilities assume that there are possible alliances between the conservative and reform parties and between the labour, liberal democrats, SNP and plaid cymru.
The near universal expectation is that Sunak’s conservative party will lose the election. Labour have been leading in general election opinion polls since late 2021, and the lead has been huge for the entirety of Sunak’s premiership.
The recent local elections may indicate a slimmer labour win than polling does, but it is notoriously difficult to extrapolate nationwide forecasts from the local votes in only some parts of the country. The left wing former labour leader, who started the 2017 general election facing a similar deficit and eventually forced a hung parliament.
Party leaders are already on the campaign trail, but parliament has a few days to wrap up any pressing issue before it is officially dissolved 25 days before polling day. Once that happens, the parliament that was formed in the previous 2019 general election ceases to exist and Sunak’s government will continue to run the country.
