Election Day in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
is by tradition a Thursday. Polls in the United Kingdom open at 7:00 and close at 22:00.
General elections
It has been suggested that this tradition arose as the best of several circumstances: Friday pay-packets would lead to more drunken voters on Fridays and weekends; having the election as far after a Sunday as possible would reduce the influence of Sunday sermons; many towns held markets on Thursdays, thus the local population would be travelling to town that day anyway.
Under the
Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011
The Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 (c. 14) (FTPA) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that for the first time set in legislation a default fixed election date for a general election to the Westminster parliament. Since the repeal ...
before it was repealed in 2022, all future General Elections took place on the first Thursday in May every five years, barring special circumstances. The decision was taken by two-thirds majority of the House of Commons, or is legally determined through the act as the first Thursday in May every 5 years.
Before the Fixed Terms Parliament Act 2011 and after it was repealed, a
General Election in the UK will follow the dissolution of
Parliament
In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
by the
Monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
on the advice of the
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
of the day. The Prime Minister thus has the power to choose the date of the election. Thursday has been the customary day to hold elections since the 1930s. The
Levellers
The Levellers were a political movement active during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms who were committed to popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law and religious tolerance. The hallmark of Leveller thought was its populis ...
proposed that elections be held on the first Thursday in every second March in
The Agreement of the People
'' An Agreement of the People'' was a series of manifestos, published between 1647 and 1649, for constitutional changes to the English state. Several versions of the ''Agreement'' were published, each adapted to address not only broad concerns ...
in 1647.
Historically, elections took place over the course of a four-week period until 1918. Election days were then as follows:
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14 December 1918 – Saturday
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15 November 1922 – Wednesday
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6 December 1923 – Thursday
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29 October 1924 – Wednesday
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30 May 1929 – Thursday
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27 October 1931 – Tuesday
and elections have been on Thursdays since then:
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14 November 1935
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5 July 1945
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23 February 1950
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25 October 1951
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26 May 1955
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8 October 1959
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15 October 1964
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31 March 1966
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18 June 1970
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28 February 1974
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10 October 1974
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3 May 1979
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9 June 1983
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11 June 1987
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9 April 1992
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1 May 1997
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7 June 2001
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5 May 2005
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6 May 2010
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7 May 2015
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8 June 2017
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12 December 2019
Other elections
Local elections in England and Wales are by statute held on the first Thursday in May. This has been changed in recent years: in 2001 they were delayed while an
outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease was dealt with and in 2020 they were postponed by a year due to the
COVID-19 pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...
.
In 2004, 2009 & 2014 local elections were delayed in order to allow the elections to be held simultaneously with the
European Parliament
The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...
. However the elections were separate in 2019. In all cases, the elections were held on Thursdays.
By-elections and other UK elections are also traditionally held on Thursdays though they can be held on other days – in particular when they would otherwise clash with bank holidays. The last Parliamentary by-election not to be held on a Thursday was the
Hamilton by-election of 31 May 1978. This was held on a Wednesday as the returning officer wished to avoid a clash with the opening game of the
1978 FIFA World Cup
The 1978 FIFA World Cup was the 11th edition of the FIFA World Cup, a quadrennial international football world championship tournament among the men's senior national teams. It was held in Argentina between 1 and 25 June.
The Cup was won by t ...
. Today, council by-elections are still occasionally held on days other than Thursday.
From 1997 to 2015, general elections occurred on the same days as the annual scheduled local government elections; however, this ended in 2017 with the local elections on 4 May and the general election on 8 June.
See also
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Election day
Election day or polling day is the day on which general elections are held. In many countries, general elections are always held on a Saturday or Sunday, to enable as many voters as possible to participate; while in other countries elections ar ...
– most other European countries hold elections on Sundays.
References
{{Reflist
Politics of the United Kingdom
Elections in the United Kingdom