From shouting it out to staying at home: a brief history of UK elctions

Most of the voters who had cast their ballots in the general election on Thursday June 8, would have taken their right to do so for granted, unaware of the contested history of this now familiar action. It’s actually less than 100 years since all adult males in the UK were awarded the franchise for parliamentary elections, in 1918, in the wake of World War I. That right wasn’t extended to all adult women for a further ten years after that.

Even today, it might be argued, the democratic principle of “one person, one vote” has not been fully implemented, since the royal family and members of the House of Lords are not allowed to vote in parliamentary elections. And even after the mass enfranchisement of the early 20th century, university graduates and owners of businesses retained a double vote, the former in their university constituencies as well as where they lived. These privileges were only abolished in 1948, in face of overwhelming Conservative opposition.

How Britain votes today is also a relatively late development in electoral history. Until 1872, parliamentary electors cast their votes orally, sometimes in front of a crowd, and these choices were then published in a poll book. Public voting was often a festive, even riotous affair. Problems of intimidation were widespread, and sanctions might be applied by landlords and employers if voters failed to follow their wishes, though this was widely accepted at the time as the “natural” state of affairs.

Open voting even had its defenders, notably the political radical John Stuart Mill, who regarded it as a manly mark of independence.

But as the franchise was partially extended in the 19th century, the campaign for secrecy grew. The method that was eventually adopted was borrowed from Australia, where the use of polling booths and uniform ballot papers marked with an “X” was pioneered in the 1850s.

More recent reforms took place in 1969, when the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18. Party emblems were also allowed on the ballot paper for the first time that year. It’s this kind of paper that will be used on June 8.
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Asian markets trade lower ahead of ECB meet and UK election

Asian shares wobbled in early Thursday trade as investors braced for any surprises from former FBI director James Comey's congressional appearance, the European Central Bank's policy meeting and the UK general elections.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.27 percent while Japan's Nikkei rose 0.3 percent thanks to the dollar's rebound against the yen.

Wall Street shares ticked up on Wednesday, despite sharp decline in energy prices, after written testimony from Comey did not add major revelations about an investigation into Russian meddling with last year's US presidential election.

The 10-year US Treasuries yield ticked up to 2.185 percent after having fallen to a seven-month low of 2.129 percent on Tuesday.

Many investors are wary ahead of Comey's Senate appearance later in the day for any hints that President Donald Trump may have been engaged in obstruction of justice - an offence that could lead to impeachment hearings.

"If the hearing does not produce clear-cut evidences of obstruction of justice, uncertainties will remain but for market the issue will likely be put on a back burner," said Hiroko Iwaki, senior fixed income strategist at Mizuho Securities.

"Unless you assume there will be a complete chaos in US politics or a downturn in the U.S. economy, it is hard to see further falls in US bond yields," she said.

In the foreign exchange market, the dollar stayed near its seven-month low against a basket of currencies as doubts over Trump's ability to push through his stimulus plans have eroded the greenback's gains late last year.

The dollar index stood at 96.695, near Wednesday's seven-month low of 96.511.

The euro traded at $1.1258, near its seven-month high of $1.1285 touched earlier this month, ahead of the European Central Bank's policy meeting later in the day.

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UK general elections 2017: All you need to know as Britain goes to polls

It’s going to be a long night as the UK goes to the polls for its snap 2017 general election. So should you stay up all night or take a democracy nap? Here are the key moments to look out for and the seats which might indicate early on whether Theresa May has secured the thumping majority she originally envisaged.

The polls close at 10pm

The doors will shut and ballot boxes will be sealed up and transported to one of the counting centres across the UK. In some places, this involves travelling a significant distance, so delays can occur. In Scotland, helicopters have been used to transfer boxes from remote islands to the mainland.

Counting clerks will then work through the night to count the votes in most cases. If you’re feeling tired by this point, remember that many of these officials will have begun work at 6.30am (or earlier) setting up the poll.

Will there be an exit poll and will it be reliable?

IPSOS-Mori’s exit poll will be reported on the BBC and Sky News at 10pm as soon as polls close.

At the last election, the exit poll caused quite a stir. Announced on the BBC at 10pm, it forecast that the Conservatives would be the largest party. It took an immediate bashing with Paddy Ashdown infamously stating that he would “eat his hat” if it was correct. He had to eat his hat.

As it turned out, that poll was much closer to the eventual reality than polls that took place before the election. The exit poll is therefore a crucial clue as to how things will unfold.

We should nevertheless take exit polls with a pinch of salt. They’ve been wrong before, as they were in 1992. They are based on samples which may not be representative of the whole population, but exit polls do have the advantage of asking people what they really did, rather than what they intend to do at some point in the future.
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