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Hay 650 distritos electorales para la Cámara de los Comunes británica.

En el Reino Unido (Reino Unido), cada una de las áreas o divisiones electorales llamadas distritos electorales elige a un miembro de la Cámara de los Comunes .

En el Reino Unido hay cinco órganos con miembros elegidos por distritos electorales llamados "distritos electorales " en contraposición a " distritos ":

Entre 1921 y 1973, el siguiente organismo también incluyó miembros elegidos por distritos electorales:

Las áreas electorales llamadas distritos electorales se utilizaron anteriormente en las elecciones al Parlamento Europeo , antes de la salida del Reino Unido de la Unión Europea . (Ver circunscripción al Parlamento Europeo ).

En las elecciones de gobiernos locales (que no sean para la Asamblea de Londres), las áreas electorales se denominan distritos o divisiones electorales .

Distritos electorales del condado y distritos electorales [ editar ]

Los distritos electorales de la Cámara de los Comunes, el Parlamento Escocés, Senedd e Irlanda del Norte se designan como condado odistritos electorales, excepto que en Escocia el términoburgh se usa en lugar de borough . Desde el advenimiento del sufragio universal , las diferencias entre distritos electorales del condado y del municipio son leves. Anteriormente (ver más abajo ) la franquicia difería, y también había distritos distritales y universitarios del condado .

Los distritos electorales de los distritos son predominantemente urbanos, mientras que los distritos electorales del condado son predominantemente rurales . No existe un criterio legal definitivo para la distinción; la Comisión de Límites de Inglaterra ha declarado que, "como principio general, cuando los distritos electorales contienen más de un pequeño elemento rural, normalmente deberían designarse como distritos electorales del condado. De lo contrario, deberían designarse como distritos distritales". [1] En Escocia, todos los distritos electorales de la Cámara de los Comunes son distritos electorales del condado, excepto los de las ciudades de Glasgow , Edimburgo , Aberdeen , Dundee y tres áreas urbanas de Lanarkshire . [2]

En Inglaterra y Gales, el puesto de escrutador en distritos distritales lo desempeña ex officio el alcalde o presidente del consejo municipal o de distrito, y el sheriff superior del condado en distritos electorales del condado. [3] La administración de las elecciones se lleva a cabo por la actuación oficial de vuelta , que por lo general será de un consejo local director ejecutivo [4] o Jefe de Servicios Legales. Sin embargo, la función es independiente de estos cargos y puede ser desempeñada por cualquier persona designada por el consejo. Los límites de gasto para las campañas electorales son diferentes en los dos, el razonamiento es que los candidatos en distritos electorales del condado tienden a necesitar viajar más lejos.

Límites de gasto para campañas electorales
Elected bodyConstituency type
borough/burghcounty
House of Commons[5][6]£7,150 + 5p per elector£7,150 + 7p per elector
Northern Ireland Assembly£5,483 + 4.6p per elector£5,483 + 6.2p per elector
Scottish Parliament
Senedd		£5,761 + 4.8p per elector£5,761 + 6.5p per elector

For by-elections to any of these bodies, the limit in all constituencies is £100,000.[7][8]

History[edit]

See also: Unreformed House of Commons and Parliamentary Franchise in the United Kingdom 1885–1918

In the House of Commons of England, each English county elected two "knights of the shire" while each enfranchised borough elected "burgesses" (usually two, sometimes four, and in a few cases one).[9] From 1535 each Welsh county and borough was represented, by one knight or burgess.[10] The franchise was restricted differently in different types of constituency; in county constituencies forty shilling freeholders (i.e. landowners) could vote, while in boroughs the franchise varied from potwallopers, giving many residents votes, to rotten boroughs with hardly any voters. A county borough was the constituency of a county corporate, combining the franchises of both county and borough. Until 1950 there were also university constituencies, which gave graduates an additional representation.

Similar distinctions applied in the Irish House of Commons, while the non-university elected members of the Parliament of Scotland were called Shire Commissioners and Burgh Commissioners. After the Acts of Union 1707, Scottish burghs were grouped into districts of burghs in the Parliament of Great Britain, except that Edinburgh was a constituency in its own right. After the Acts of Union 1800, smaller Irish boroughs were disenfranchised, while most others returned only one MP to the United Kingdom Parliament.

The Reform Act 1832 reduced the number of parliamentary boroughs in England and Wales by eliminating the rotten boroughs. It also divided larger counties into two two-seat divisions, the boundaries of which were defined in the Parliamentary Boundaries Act 1832, and gave seven counties a third member. Similar reforms were also made for Scotland and for Ireland. The Redistribution of Seats Act 1885 equalised the population of constituencies; it split larger boroughs into multiple single-member constituencies, reduced smaller boroughs from two seats each to one, split each two-seat county and division into two single-member constituencies, and each three-seat county into single-member constituencies.

The House of Commons (Redistribution of Seats) Act 1958, eliminated the previous common electoral quota for the whole United Kingdom and replaced it with four separate national minimal seat quotas for the respective Boundaries commissions to work to, as a result the separate national electoral quotas came into effect: England 69,534; Northern Ireland 67,145, Wales 58,383 and in Scotland only 54,741 electors.

Naming[edit]

The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011 gives the Boundary Commissions for England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland the power to create names for constituencies, and does not provide a set of statutory guidelines for the Commissions to follow in doing so.

Constituency names are geographic, and "should normally reflect the main population centre(s) contained in the constituency". Compass points are used to distinguish constituencies from each other when a more suitable label cannot be found. Where used, "The compass point reference used will generally form a prefix in cases where the rest of the constituency name refers to the county area or a local council, but a suffix where the rest of the name refers to a population centre." This is the reason for the difference in naming between, for example, North Shropshire (a county constituency) and Reading West (a borough constituency).[11]

House of Commons constituencies[edit]

In the 2005 United Kingdom general election, the House of Commons had 646 constituencies covering the whole of the United Kingdom. This rose to 650 in the 2010 election following the Fifth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies. Each constituency elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the "first-past-the-post" system of election.[12]

The House of Commons is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Parliament of the United Kingdom, the other being the House of Lords.[13]

See also[edit]

  • Boundary commissions (United Kingdom)
  • List of United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
  • Former United Kingdom Parliament constituencies
  • Constituencies in the next United Kingdom general election
  • University constituency
  • Number of Westminster MPs

London Assembly constituencies[edit]

Main articles: London Assembly constituencies and List of London Assembly constituencies

There are fourteen London Assembly constituencies covering the Greater London area, and each constituency elects one member of the assembly by the first-past-the-post system. Eleven additional members are elected from Greater London as a whole to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation.

Constituency names and boundaries remain now as they were for the first general election of the assembly, in 2000.

The assembly is part of the Greater London Authority and general elections of the assembly are held at the same time as election of the mayor of London.

Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies[edit]

Main article: Northern Ireland Assembly constituencies

There are 18 Northern Ireland Assembly Constituencies: four borough (for Belfast) and 14 county constituencies elsewhere (see below).

Each elects five MLAs to the 90 member NI Assembly by means of the single transferable vote system. Assembly Constituency boundaries are identical to their House of Commons equivalents.[14]

The constituencies below are not used for the election of members to the 11 district councils.[15]

NameCurrent boundariesName
  1. Belfast East BC
  2. Belfast North BC
  3. Belfast South BC
  4. Belfast West BC
  5. East Antrim CC
  6. East Londonderry CC
  7. Fermanagh & South Tyrone CC
  8. Foyle CC
  9. Lagan Valley CC
  1. Mid Ulster CC
  2. Newry & Armagh CC
  3. North Antrim CC
  4. North Down CC
  5. South Antrim CC
  6. South Down CC
  7. Strangford CC
  8. Upper Bann CC
  9. West Tyrone CC

Scottish Parliament constituencies[edit]

Main article: Scottish Parliament constituencies and electoral regions

Scottish Parliament constituencies are sometimes called Holyrood constituencies, to distinguish them from Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies.[16] The Scottish Parliament Building is in the Holyrood area of Edinburgh, while the main meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom is the Palace of Westminster, in the City of Westminster.[17]

There are 73 Holyrood constituencies covering Scotland, and each elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first-past-the-post system. Also, the constituencies are grouped into eight electoral regions, and each of these regions elects seven additional members, to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation.[18]

The existing constituencies were created, effectively, for the first general election of the Scottish Parliament, in 1999. When created, all but two had the names and boundaries of Westminster constituencies. The two exceptions were the Orkney Holyrood constituency, covering the Orkney Islands council area, and the Shetland Holyrood constituency, covering the Shetland Islands council area. For Westminster elections, these council areas were covered (and still are covered) by the Orkney and Shetland Westminster constituency.

In 1999, under the Scotland Act 1998,[19] the expectation was that there would be a permanent link between the boundaries of Holyrood constituencies and those of Westminster constituencies. This link was broken, however, by the Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004,[20] which enabled the creation of a new set of Westminster constituencies without change to Holyrood constituencies. The new Westminster boundaries became effective for the 2005 United Kingdom general election.

Senedd constituencies[edit]

Main article: Senedd constituencies and electoral regions

There are 40 Senedd constituencies covering Wales, and each elects one Member of the Senedd (MS) by the first-past-the-post system. Also, the constituencies are grouped into five electoral regions, and each of these regions elects four additional members, to produce a form or degree of mixed-member proportional representation.

The current set of Senedd constituencies is the second to be created. The first was created for the first general election of the National Assembly for Wales, in 1999.

European Parliament constituencies[edit]

Main article: European Parliament constituencies in the United Kingdom

Before its withdrawal from the European Union in 2020, the United Kingdom elected its Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) through twelve multimember European Parliament constituencies. One, Northern Ireland, used single transferable vote, while the eleven covering Great Britain used the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.

For its first European Parliamentary elections in 1979 Great Britain was divided into a number of single-member first-past-the Post constituencies, matching the way Westminster MPs are elected. Following the decision that all MEPs should be elected by some form of proportional representation, the Labour government passed the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999, creating eleven constituencies on Great Britain, which were first used in 1999.[21]

The South West England constituency was expanded from the 2004 elections onward to include Gibraltar, the only British overseas territory that was part of the European Union, following a court case.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Boundary Commission for England (2007), Fifth periodical report (PDF), Norwich: TSO (The Stationery Office), ISBN 978-0-10-170322-2, archived from the original (PDF) on July 26, 2011
  2. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2013-05-04. Retrieved 2013-02-12.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  3. ^ Representation of the People Act 1983, Section 24
  4. ^ Somerset County Council Regulation Committee (1 November 2012). "Appointment of County Returning Officer" (PDF). Somerset County Council. Archived (PDF) from the original on 19 November 2016. Retrieved 19 November 2016.
  5. ^ "Representation of the People Act 1983", Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, 1983 (2), pp. 76(2)(a), 1983-02-08, retrieved 2008-11-04
  6. ^ Statutory Instrument 2005 No. 269 (section 3) The Representation of the People (Variation of Limits of Candidates' Election Expenses) Order 2005 (Coming into force 2005-03-04)
  7. ^ "Representation of the People Act 1983", Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, 1983 (2), pp. 76(2)(aa), 1983-02-08, retrieved 2008-11-04
  8. ^ "Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act 2000", Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament, 2000 (41), pp. 132(5), 2000-11-30, archived from the original on 2009-02-14, retrieved 2008-11-04
  9. ^ Tomlins, Thomas Edlyne; Granger, Thomas Colpitts (1835). The Law-dictionary, Explaining the Rise Progress and Present State of the British Law. II (4th ed.). London. p. 10.
  10. ^ Welsh Government, Law Wales (3 March 2015). "Historical Timeline of Welsh Law". law.gov.wales. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  11. ^ http://consultation.boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/406678_Guide-to-the-2013-Review_acc.pdf[permanent dead link] page 10, Boundary Commission for England, "A guide to the 2013 Review" Sections 41-44, 'Naming'
  12. ^ "First Past the Post". Electoral Reform Society. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  13. ^ "The two-House system". UK Parliament. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  14. ^ "The Electoral Office of Northern Ireland - EONI". www.eoni.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  15. ^ "Local councils in Northern Ireland". nidirect. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  16. ^ McGuire, Anne (24 January 2005). "House of Commons Standing Cttee on Delegated Legislation (pt 1)". Hansard. Retrieved 16 April 2020.
  17. ^ "Houses of Parliament and The Palace of Westminster, City of Westminster - 1226284 | Historic England". historicengland.org.uk. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  18. ^ Macnab, Scott (10 May 2019). "Holyrood voting system 'hard to understand' says top official". The Scotsman. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  19. ^ Scotland Act 1998, Office of Public Sector Information website Archived July 14, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  20. ^ Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004, Office of Public Sector Information website Archived September 2, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ "The Voting System". www.europarl.europa.eu. Retrieved 2020-05-16.
  22. ^ Gibraltar should join South West for elections to European Parliament, Electoral Commission new release, 28 Aug 2003 Archived December 5, 2007, at the Wayback Machine