Foreword: 2010 British Parliamentary Elections
UK Chooses Its Next Prime Minister
On May 6, 2010, British citizens will go to the polls in what has unexpectedly become one of the United Kingdom’s (UK) most hotly contested elections in generations. In the British system, voters do not elect their prime minister directly. Instead, they vote for parliamentary candidates in local “constituencies.” The party that wins a majority of seats in the House of Commons, the lower house, earns the right to form a government, and its leader is invited by the Queen to serve as prime minister. There is no contest for the seats in the House of Lords, the upper house,…
