The UK
Each of the 659 MPs in the House of Commons represents a particular partof the UK called a constituency. Anyone who wants to become an MP must beelected by the people of a constituency. Before an election one person ischosen by each of the main political parties to stand for election in eachconstituency. Only the candidate who gets the most votes is elected. Thesystem is called first past the post. In a general election, when elections are held in all constituencies, thewinning party, is the one that wins most seats in Parliament. By law, a general election must take place every five years. Generalelections are always held on Thursdays. Anyone who wants to stand forParliament has to leave a deposit of £500 with the Returning Officer. Thisis intended to stop people who do not seriously want to be MPs from takingpart in the election. Before an election takes place candidates campaign for support in theconstituency. The amount of money to spend is strictly limited. They cannotbuy television time. If an MP dies or resigns, a by-election is held in the constituency whichhe or she represented. Anyone over the age of 18 has the right to vote at elections. Voting isnot compulsory but the turnout (= the number of people voting) at generalelections is usually high. About a week in advance of an election everyone on the electoral registerreceives a polling card and the whole elections process begins. The counting takes place in the same evening after elections, continuingfor as long as necessary through the night. If the number of votes for twocandidates is very close, the candidates may demand a recount.
The British political system relies on having at least two parties in theHouse of Commons able to form a government. There are mainly three parties:
the Conservative Party, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democratic Party,the most important one. The Conservative Party is on the political right and the Labour Party onthe left. The Liberal Democrats are generally closer to Labour in theiropinions. The support for each party is slightly different. The Conservative Partyusually gets support from the rich people, while the Labour Party drew itssupport from the working classes and from people wanting social reforms. The main parties hold regular meetings at which party policy isdiscussed.The USA
The USA has two main political parties, the Democratic Party and theRepublican Party. Party organizations are less important in the USA than in countries likeBritain or Lithuania which have a parliament. The national organization for each of the main parties is called theNational Committee, and its head is the National Chairman. This person isappointed by the party’s candidate for President. An important job of the national party is to organize the partyconvention (=meeting), which is held every four years in the summer beforethe elections for President. The national parties raise money for election campaigns and provide otherkinds of help to their candidates. The Republicans are to the right and the Democrats to the left of centre.Typically, the Democrats support government.
Elections are held regularly for President of the US, for both houses ofCongress and for state and local government offices. During an election campaign candidates try to achieve name recognition byadvertising on television and in other mass media spheres. Election campaign is very expensive, and the candidate with most moneyhas a big advantage. Presidential elections are held every four years, Early in election year,the political parties choose their candidates through a series of primaryelections held in every state.
In November the people go to vote. US elections are held on the Tuesday following the first Monday ofNovember. Americans over the age of 18 have the right to vote, but only about halfof them take part in presidential elections, even fewer in other elections.Lithuania
Actually, both the political parties and election system in Lithuania isvery much similar to the UK or the USA. Speaking about Lithuanian political parties, it must be said that thereare far more of them than in the mentioned countries. Usually, there are 12parties, but only a leading one, the one that got the most votes inelections can be a leading party. There are three types of parties according to the centre in Lithuania.They are left, right and centre parties. A party must receive at least 5% of the national vote to be representedin the Seimas
Election system slightly differs in Lithuania than in other country. Thepresident is elected directly for 5 years. The parliament (Seimas) has 141members that are elected for a 4-year term. About half of the members areelected in single constituencies (71), and the other half (70) are electedin the nationwide vote by party lists. The voting system as such is very similar to the UK and the USA, becauseall the people over 18 can vote and the process is also not very different.
In conclusion, there is much to say about different political parties orelctions systems in all the three countries.