Elections and Democracy;

Parliament can run for up to five years, but during this time the prime minister is able to call an election whenever felt necessary (hen he/she feels the people are on their side), when the governing party no longer have a majority or if there is a vote of no confidence. Though before this happens the Queen must dissolve parliament.
Prime minster John Callaghan lost his position by one vote in a vote of confidence, this bought on the winter of discontent 1979.

The government at present have introduced fixed term elections of five years, meaning the next election (unless there is a vote of no confidence) will not take place until the 7th of May 2015.

To be able to vote, you must be registered on an electoral register of a constituency - there are around 45 million people in the country on a register and is therefore an incredibly useful tool for journalists when it come to finding people. Citizen abroad can vote, but not many do and there has been in a rise in the numbers of people voting by post - around 15% of all votes in 2005 were of this kind.
Though there are people who cannot vote at all; Those under 18 years of age, non British citizens (except those from Ireland and other commonwealth countries) and Prisoners, but this goes against European court rulings which says that criminals have the right to vote.

Representation of the peoples act made many changes as to who could vote over the years;
- 1918 - men over 21 and women over 30were able to vote.
- 1928 - universal suffrage - all adults over 21 were able to vote.
- 1969 - anyone over 18 years of age were then able to vote.

How do you win?
Any over the age of 18 can stand in an election, but winning comes down to who is 'First Past the Post'. 'FPTP' is a majoritarian voting system, which allows the MP with the most votes to be elected in each constituency, though this system does not reflect the national percentage of votes in the seats awarded to parties. In 2005, Labour won half of the seats in the commons but only had 35% of the votes. This system is also said to lead to tactical voting, it also allows the possibility of a hung parliament which other voting systems don't. This was the case in 2010 and resulted in a 'Con-Dem' coalition because neither Labour nor Conservative parties held majority of the seats in the Commons, raising arguments on how democratic the current government is because it isn't really a representation of the people.

Some would argue that we are in need of an electoral reform and should introduce a proportional representation system, such as AV, which will distribute seats in accordance with the national percentage of votes, through preference voting - when a constituents first choice of MP is no longer in the running, the second (or third and so on) preference vote is used and so it solves the problem of 'wasted votes.' The liberal democrats insisted on a referendum in 2011, as part of coalition agreements, to ask the nation whether they wanted change - the answer was no.

Spoiled voting papers in any election are disqualified, most votes are rejected because they have not been marked or because they have been marked too many times. Recounts of votes are allowed in cases where votes are incredibly close.