Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Rishi Sunak announced the next general election in the country for July 4.
This is earlier than expected, because the elections were planned for the fall.
This is a guide to better understand these choices.
- Rishi Sunak: Everything you need to know about the new British Prime Minister
- Akshata Murthy: Who is the wife of Rishi Sunak, British Prime Minister
- A king who ruled for 20 minutes and a prime minister who was in office for an hour
When are the UK elections?
General elections will be held on July 4, 2024.
In the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) the political mandate lasts for five years, and since the Conservative Party won the last election in December 2019, the next election according to the letter of the law must be held by January 2025.
Great Britain is divided into 650 areas, called constituencies.
Voters in each of these constituencies elect one MP to the House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament.
Most of the candidates represent a political party, but some of them appear as independent candidates.
Who can vote?
Anyone on the electoral roll who is aged 18 or over on election day can vote if they are a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a citizen of the Republic of Ireland with a UK address.
All UK citizens living abroad can register to vote in the constituency where they were previously resident or on the electoral roll.
Students can register at their home address and at the faculty address, but they must vote at only one of those two listed addresses.
Among those who cannot vote in general elections are prisoners serving time in prison.
How does voting work?
In general elections, each person has one vote.
On election day, registered voters in each constituency vote for their preferred candidate at their local polling station, which is open between 22 a.m. and XNUMX p.m.
Some people vote by mail in advance.
The candidate with the most votes becomes the representative for that area.
Why did Rishi Sunak call for early elections?
Rishi Sunak's conservative party is experiencing a drop in popularity in polls from 2021.
Some politicians in the party "believed that things would not improve much and that the desire of the electorate to get a chance to express themselves as soon as possible could lead to the defeat of the Conservatives being even worse if the voter turnout was delayed longer," says the BBC- 's political editor Chris Mason.
"In other words, do it now or you might do worse.
"The prime minister can also indicate that at least some of his goals have been achieved or seem to be on the way to being achieved.
"Today's inflation figure can be presented as a success. Of course, it does not depend exclusively on the actions of the government. But governments are usually blamed when inflation soars, so they can be expected to take some of the credit when it falls - and it has.
"And the broader economic picture seems a little brighter."
How are the parties doing in the polls?
According to the latest polls, Sunak's Conservative Party begins the campaign trailing its main rival, the Labor Party.
Moreover, this is how things have been for the last 12 months - Labor has been consistently above 40 percent support.
Of course, polls can be wrong, and Sunak hopes that the recent slowdown in inflation and an emphasis on party policy reform will help the Conservatives turn the tide as the campaign progresses.
As things stand, however, Labor began the campaign with a commanding lead in the polls.
Reform UK - the anti-immigrant right-wing party - is in third place, but as their support is evenly spread across the country, it could find it difficult to convert that support into seats in parliament.
The Liberal Democrats - who were previously the third largest party in the country - have fairly consistently averaged around 10 percent, but they are hoping that by focusing on the main coveted seats, they will be able to achieve electoral success.
What will happen to Rishi Sunak's plan for Rwanda?
Rishi Sunak had previously promised to start sending some asylum seekers to Rwanda before the general elections.
He has declared the implementation of the policy a key priority of his prime ministership, arguing that it will deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.
But after calling a snap election, he now claims the program will begin if he is re-elected on July 4.
Labor has announced it will scrap the plan if it comes to power, questioning whether anyone will ever be sent home.
The program, which has already cost $305 million, will be a key polarizing issue between the two major parties six weeks into the election campaign.
Who are the key candidates?
The two parties expected to win the largest percentage of the vote are currently the ruling Conservative Party and the Labor Party.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who is 44 years old, leads the Conservative Party.
He was 42 years old when he became prime minister in 2022, thus becoming the youngest holder of that office in recent history.
He is also the first British Indian to become Prime Minister.
The leader of the Labor Party is Sir Keir Starmer, who is 61 years old.
He was elected party leader after Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.
He previously headed the Crown Prosecution Service and Director of Public Prosecutions.
What happens to the parliament and deputies before the elections?
The prime minister formally asked the king to "dissolve" parliament - the official term for shutting it down ahead of the election.
That happened on Thursday, May 30.
MPs lose their status and have to campaign for re-election if they want to continue.
More than 100 deputies have announced that they will not participate in the next elections.
The government is also entering the pre-election period, which limits the activities of ministers and ministries during the campaign.
What will happen when the election results are announced?
After counting the votes, the king will ask the leader of the party with the most MPs to become prime minister and form a government.
The leader of the party with the second largest number of deputies becomes the leader of the opposition.
If no party has a majority of MPs - meaning it cannot pass laws with only its own MPs - the result is a blocked or frozen parliament.
At that point, the largest party could decide to form a coalition government with another party or function as a minority government, counting on the votes of other parties to pass laws.
Watch the video: The Falkland War of Argentina and Britain
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube i Viber. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
