Как голосовать по-английски
Эта суббота в России является днем тишины. Согласно правилам в день выборов и предшествующие ему сутки любая агитация запрещена.
Задача дня тишины - обеспечить каждому избирателю самостоятельность выбора, защитить от возможного случайного влияния каких-либо материалов, психологического давления и пр.
Мне стало интересно, существует ли подобное правило в Англии, и я попросила сестру рассказать нам о том, как проходят выборы в Великобритании.
The British pride themselves in being a very democratic society. Since I have moved to the UK in 2014 there have been major nationwide votes every year, including the vote for Scottish independence in 2014, general election in 2015, referendum on leaving the European Union and general election in 2017. To avoid writing a massive essay, we will speak about general elections only.
General Elections (elections to the UK Parliament) usually take place every 5 years. To vote in a General Election one must:
be registered to vote
be 18 or over on the day of the election (‘polling day’)
be a British, Irish or qualifying Commonwealth citizen
be resident at an address in the UK (or a British citizen living abroad who has been registered to vote in the UK in the last 15 years)
not be legally excluded from voting.
But how does the voting work? If we take general election, Britain has a parliamentary system with first-past-the-post voting. This system means that Britons have one vote to choose their local member of Parliament. There are 650 Members of Parliament (MPs) in the UK Parliament. Whichever party has the most seats in Parliament will then form a government, with the party's leader as prime minister.
Unlike proportional representation, the system often inflates majorities - meaning that a party doesn't have to receive 50 percent of the vote to have a majority in Parliament. Historically, this has resulted in Britain having a two-party system dominated by the centre-right Conservatives and the centre-left Labour Party. But now there is a bigger diversity and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have their own parties. Voters can go to the polls between 7 am and 10 pm. Exit polls are published shortly after that (no exit polls can be published earlier in the day, due to British election laws), with the final result possible as early as 3 am local time. The leader of the winning party becomes Prime Minister.
The candidates take part in head-to-head television debates ahead of the general elections and there are numerous programs to put the party leaders to the test. They kick off with a seven-way debate (by the number of main political parties) and also include one-to-one interviews and a Question Time special. However, like in Russia, all the debates are forbidden on the election day. The latest statistics shows that more than half of the population votes, but it is those who don’t which need to be addressed. Mostly these are people under 30, that is why the campaigners are trying to use social media to get connected to them, but still they have a long way to go.
Funny fact is that the British like to bet on everything from horse races to general elections. And despite the fact that there are teams of analysts and researchers trying to predict the outcome and the future impact, people still trust the bookies’ odds and ends more than the scientists and politicians!
Запоминаем:
election silence - день тишины
nationwide vote - общенациональное голосование
polling day - день выборов
first-past-the-post voting - мажоритарная избирательная система (система выборов в коллегиальный орган (парламент), при которой избранными считаются кандидаты, получившие большинство голосов избирателей в своём избирательном округе. Существует в Великобритании, России, Франции, США и Канаде)
proportional representation - система пропорционального представительства
go to the polls - 1. идти на выборы; 2. выставлять свою кандидатуру
exit poll - экзитпол (используемая в мировой социологической практике процедура опроса граждан, производимого социологическими службами на выходе из избирательных участков после голосования)
head-to-head television debates - теледебаты (обратите, пожалуйста, внимание на существующую разницу: выражение 'television debates' употребляется в Америке, в Англии говорят 'head-to-head debates' или 'live head-to-head debates', если программа проходит в прямом эфире)
to put to the test - подвергнуть испытанию
kick off - начинать
a seven-way debate - семисторонняя дискуссия
special - специальный выпуск
outcome - результат
future impact - будущее влияние
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