Research Briefing
Referendums have become an established mechanism for validating constitutional initiatives in the UK. The possibility of using an appropriate minimum turnout, or a special majority to ensure that the outcome of such a poll is seen as legitimate is sometimes raised. This note looks at the debate in the UK so far and briefly looks at the use of referendum thresholds in states outside the UK.
Research Briefing
This note reviews developments in Burma since the November 2010 elections.
Research Briefing
The SNP gained an overall majority in the Scottish Parliament in the elections on 5 May 2011. The paper provides data on voting trends and electoral turnout for constituencies, electoral regions, and for Scotland as a whole.
Research Briefing
Elections on 5 May 2011 resulted in little change in the overall party composition of the Northern Ireland Assembly. Gains and losses by individual parties involved just one or two seats. 108 Assembly Members were elected by Single Transferrable Vote, 6 Members for each of 18 constituencies. Following the 2011 elections the two largest parties in the Assembly are the DUP (38 MLAs) and Sinn Féin (29 MLAs).
Research Briefing
This Research Paper provides summary and detailed results of the fourth elections to the National Assembly for Wales, which took place on 5 May 2011.
Research Briefing
67.9% of voters opposed changing the electoral system to the Alternative Vote, in a UK wide referendum on 5 May 2011. Turnout was 42.0%. This Research Paper presents information on votes cast in each region and referendum counting area.
Research Briefing
This note looks at the political system in Afghanistan in the wake of the 2010 parliamentary elections and the moves towards reintegration and a negotiated settlement with the Taliban.
Research Briefing
On 3 March 2011 a referendum was held in Wales to decide whether the National Assembly for Wales should gain the power to legislate on a wider range of matters in one go. This was in contrast to the previous situation, in which it had to gain approval from the UK Parliament each time it wanted to expand the range of matters. This note gives an account of the referendum campaign and vote, and the implications of this in constitutional terms
Research Briefing
The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act contains measures to set the number of UK parliamentary constituencies at 600 and to limit the permitted variation in the number of registered electors for a constituency. This note considers the possible impact by region of the proposals in the Bill and compares the sizes of constituency electorates at 1 December 2010. It looks at the variation in electorate sizes about national and regional means and about the UK Electoral Quota as defined in the Act.
Research Briefing
This Note summarises the Lords stages of the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill 2010-11. It supplements Research Paper 10/55 which was produced for the Bill's second reading in the House of Commons and Research Paper 10/72 which summarises all the Commons stages of the Bill.
Research Briefing
The wash-up period at the end of a Parliament allows a Government to get onto the statute book essential or non-controversial legislation that would not otherwise complete its passage through Parliament because of Dissolution. This paper describes the wash-up process; reviews the proceedings on wash-up in 2010; and provides details of Bills that received Royal Assent in each of the last six wash-up periods.
Research Briefing
No single party won an overall majority at the 2010 General Election, for the first time in the UK since February 1974. The Conservatives won the most seats, 306, a net change of 96 compared with notional 2005 general election results. Labour were down by 90 seats, leaving them with 258, while the Liberal Democrat total of 57 was five fewer than 2005. General Election 2010 provides detailed analysis of the results of the 2010 General Election. The data for votes cast and electorates agree with the official results published by the Electoral Commission. This Research Paper replaces the analysis published on 8 July 2010 which used provisional data.
Research Briefing
This Research Paper summarises all the Commons stages of the Fixed-term Parliaments Bill. It complements Research Paper 10/54 which was prepared for the Commons Second Reading. No major amendments were made to the Bill during its Committee stage and no amendments were made during Report.
Total results (page 28 of 36)