Over hundreds of years, many thousands have sacrificed their lives to ensure everyone has the equal right to shape the future of our country. Your vote amplifies your voice, influences policies, and holds leaders accountable. It's a powerful way to contribute to the democratic process, ensuring your values and concerns are represented in government decisions. This is both locally and nationally, just as your MP contributes to national policy, they are also a key advocate for local communities.
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In our first-past-the-post electoral system, the party with the most votes wins the seat ('plurality'), even if they don't win a majority of votes, and all other parties win nothing. This means that if the party you most support has no chance of winning the plurality, it may be tactical to vote for the candidate you most prefer out of those with a realistic chance of winning. In other words, it is about accounting for the practical chances of winning the election when choosing who you vote for to maximise the impact of your vote.
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The UK uses a first-past-the-post electoral system. For national elections, the UK is split into 650 geographical units, or parliamentary constituencies, of approximately 73'000 people each (these have changed for the upcoming election). Where you live determines which constituency you can vote in.

For each constituency, there will be a list of candidates, normally linked to parties, you can vote for (how to vote). You get to place one vote with one candidate, and the candidate with the most votes (plurality) wins, even if they didn't receive the majority of votes. For example, if a candidate gets 40% of votes, and two other candidates get 30% each, then the candidate with 40% of the votes wins. This then decides who will be the MP for your constituency ('seat').

These 650 MPs form the House of Commons in parliament. If one party has the majority of seats, then they will form a government. If no party gets a majority, then they either need to form a coalition with other parties, or a minority government may be formed.
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MRP polling takes the opinions of a cross-section of society, and based on various demographics, uses "multi-level regression and post-stratification" (MRP) to estimate the likely voting intentions in a given constituency (Mark Pack explains this well). However, there is no guarantee that this prediction will be right.
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