Compared to elections to other countries, a British election is a rapid and straightforward affair. Traditionally about 75 percent of the country’s 44 million registered voters take part. They each place a cross next to the name of the candidate they want to vote for on a ballot paper. In a general election, voters choose the man or woman they wish to represent them in the House of Commons.
　　Unlike other countries, Britain uses the “first-past-the-post” method for choosing its government. Under this system, the candidate who wins the highest number of votes in each constituency becomes the Member of Parliament (MP) for the seat, even if he or she has less than half of the total vote. Currently, there are 651 geographical constituencies in Britain.
　　Most candidates are members of Britain’s 3 main political parties. They are the conservatives, Labour, and the smaller Liberal Democrats.
　　Any citizen of Britain can try and get elected as an MP. Only bankrupts, prisoners, members of the clergy, peers and certain senior public officials are not allowed to stand. But in order to limit the number of people who do take apart, each candidates is required to deposit£ before the election. They “l(fā)ose their deposit” if they fail to win 5 percent of the poll.
　　The “first-past-the-post” principle is also used to decide which party will from the new government. As a rule, the party which wins the most seats is invited by the Queen to form the government. The leader of that party then becomes the new prime minister.
　　The exact date of the election is chosen by the prime minister and is normally announced about a month in advance. This makes the election campaign quite short in comparison to countries like the U.S.A., where the campaign to elect the president lasts for up to nine months.
　　It’s estimated that up to a fifth of voters in Britain only decide who they will vote for in the last 4 weeks before an election. As a result, parties spend huge sums of money on advertising in the last few weeks. Individual candidates are limited by law on how much they may spend but no such restriction applies to the parties.
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　　比起其他國(guó)家的選舉，英國(guó)大選是一件快速且簡(jiǎn)單的事情。一般來(lái)說(shuō)，全國(guó)登記的4400萬(wàn)選民中會(huì)有75%的人參加投票。他們只要在選票上自己支持的候選人名字旁邊畫(huà)上一個(gè)叉叉就可以了。在普選中，選民根據(jù)自己的意愿來(lái)選出下議院的代表。
　　與別的國(guó)家不同，英國(guó)采用“得票最多就獲勝”的選舉制度來(lái)組成政府，即：在一個(gè)選區(qū)獲得票數(shù)最多的候選人就能獲得議會(huì)的席位，即使他/她獲得的選票不足總票數(shù)的一半。現(xiàn)在，英國(guó)有651個(gè)從地理上劃分的選區(qū)。
　　大部分的候選人都屬于英國(guó)的三個(gè)主要政黨，即保守黨、工黨和最小的自由民主黨。
　　英國(guó)所有的公民都有機(jī)會(huì)競(jìng)選議員，除了破產(chǎn)的人、囚犯、神職人員、貴族和某些高級(jí)官員。為了限制參加競(jìng)選的人數(shù)，每一個(gè)侯選人在大選之前都要交500英鎊。如果他們獲得的選票不足5%，政府就不退還那500英鎊。
　　“得票最多就是獲勝”的原則也用于決定哪個(gè)政黨組成新的政府。根據(jù)慣例，獲得席位最多的政黨受女王的邀請(qǐng)來(lái)組閣。該政黨的領(lǐng)袖成為新的首相。
　　選舉的確切日期是由首相選定的，通常會(huì)提前一個(gè)月公布。這使得英國(guó)的競(jìng)選時(shí)間同美國(guó)這樣的國(guó)家相比要短得多，美國(guó)的總統(tǒng)競(jìng)選時(shí)間最長(zhǎng)可持續(xù)9個(gè)月。
　　有估計(jì)說(shuō)五分之一的英國(guó)選民是在選舉前四個(gè)禮拜才決定選誰(shuí)。這就導(dǎo)致了各政黨在最后幾周花大把大把的錢(qián)做廣告。英國(guó)有法律規(guī)定候選人在競(jìng)選過(guò)程中只能花多少錢(qián)，但是對(duì)政黨沒(méi)有規(guī)定。