Community: The Union for Life

How is the European Parliament elected?

The EU Parliament is elected using the d'Hondt system. This is a proportional representation system which means that every vote counts!

Under the d'Hondt system the party with the highest number of votes gets allocated the first seat in the first round. That party then has their vote divided by the number of seats that they have won plus one. i.e. After their first seat their votes are dived by two, after their second seat is won their original number of votes is divided by 3. See our helpful example for more details.

The following example shows every vote can make a difference. In an 8 seat election 100,000 votes are cast. The Labour Party gets 34,000, the Conservatives 27,000, Liberal Democrats 17,000, UKIP 8,000, BNP 7,000, Greens 5,000 and others 2,000.

Round	Labour	Conservative	Lib Dem	UKIP	BNP	Greens	Others
1	33*	27	17	8	7	5	3
2	16.5	27*	17	8	7	5	3
3	16.5	13.5	17*	8	7	5	3
4	16.5*	13.5	8.5	8	7	5	3
5	11	13.5*	8.5	8	7	5	3
6	11*	9	8.5	8	7	5	3
7	8.25	9*	8.5	8	7	5	3
8	8.25	6.75	8.5*	8	7	5	3

As the party with the most votes, Labour is awarded the first seat in round 1. In round two the Labour vote is divided by two and falls from 33 to 16.5. Then the Conservatives having the highest number of votes in round two are awarded the second seat.

This continues until all the seats are allocated. In this example the Labour Party and Conservatives each elect three candidates, while the Liberal Democrats elect 2.

However, to show how important every vote is, the second example shows the result of moving 0.5% of the vote from the Liberal Democrats to the Labour Party.

Round	Labour	Conservative	Lib Dem	UKIP	BNP	Green	Other
1	33.5*	27	16.5	8	7	5	3
2	16.75	27*	16.5	8	7	5	3
3	16.75*	13.5	16.5	8	7	5	3
4	11.2	13.5	16.5*	8	7	5	3
5	11.2	13.5*	8.25	8	7	5	3
6	11.2*	9	8.25	8	7	5	3
7	8.375	9*	8.25	8	7	5	3
8	8.375*	9	8.25	8	7	5	3

In this example the Labour Party manages to win the eighth and last seat from the Liberal Democrats.

But voting in the European Parliamentary Elections is not just about maximising representation for the political parties that protect workers rights and safeguard the environment. It is also important to keep fascist right wing parties from across Europe getting elected and uniting in the Parliament to act workers rights, the environment and minority groups.

In the above example, a movement of just 0.5% of the vote could elect a UKIP candidate. A movement of just 1.5% of the vote could elect a BNP candidate.

 

Are you registered to vote?

UK citizens should check to ensure that they are correctly registered to vote by checking the electoral register in their local area.

European citizens living in the UK can cast their vote for the European parliament by registering with the Electoral Commission.

Information is available at the Electoral Commission website aboutmyvote.co.uk