There are six types of
elections in the United Kingdom:
United Kingdom general elections, elections to devolved parliaments and assemblies, elections to the
European Parliament, local elections, mayoral elections and
Police and Crime Commissioner elections. Elections are held on
Election Day, which is conventionally a Thursday. Since the passing of the
Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 for general elections, all six types of elections are held after fixed periods, though early elections to parliament and the devolved assemblies and parliaments can occur in certain situations. Currently, six
electoral systems are used: the
single member plurality system (
first past the post), the
multi member plurality system,
party-list proportional representation, the
single transferable vote, the
additional member system and the
supplementary vote.