The General Election is on Thursday 4th July 2024. There is no legal requirement for early general elections to take place on a Thursday. By default, elections held at the end of a five-year session take place on the first Thursday in May of the relevant year. The last time a general election was held on a day other than a Thursday in the UK was Tuesday 27 October 1931.
The English voting system has evolved over many centuries but recent changes in democracy include:
The Great Reform Act that excluded women from the electorate by defining voters as ‘male persons’ in 1832. However, this still meant that only 40% of adult men were eligible to vote and this did not improve for men, until 1918. To have the entitlement to vote, men had to be over 21, own property or ‘paid rates’. Plural voting, i.e. one person having more than one vote, was also permitted on grounds of higher education or business ownership. Men who received poor relief were disqualified.
The Representation of the People Act (RPA) in 1918 removed, for men, the property qualifications needed to register and replaced it with a simple residence qualification. Disqualification of men in receipt of poor relief was retained in the original Bill but was removed during the passage of the legislation. This granted universal male suffrage.
The RPA 1918 also introduced votes for some women aged 30 and over but with a property qualification. To qualify for the Parliamentary franchise a woman, as well as being at least 30, had to own or rent property of a yearly value of £5 or more, or be married to a man who qualified for the local government franchise.
The Act also introduced a system of absent ballots to allow soldiers still stationed across the Channel to vote. Service voters had to be 19 years or older.
In 1832, the first petition on women’s suffrage presented to Parliament. John Stuart Mill led the first debate into this in 1867, 35 years later.
In 1884, women campaigned to be included in the Third Reform Act, without success. The Women’s Franchise League is formed and aims to win the vote for married women as well as single and widowed women in 1889.
In 1897 the formation of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS), led by Millicent Fawcett (1847-1929), drawing together peaceful campaign groups under one banner and in 1903
The Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) is founded in Manchester by Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928).
However, in 1905, Suffragette militancy begins. Hunger striking was a strategy and forcible feeding was enforced. From 1910 to 1912
Parliament considers various ‘Conciliation Bills’ which would have given some women the vote, but none pass. On census night in 1911, suffragette Emily Wilding Davison (1872-1913) hides in a cupboard in the House of Commons. In 1913, The Prisoners’ Temporary Discharge for Ill-Health Act, also known as ‘The Cat and Mouse Act’, is introduced, targeting suffragettes on hunger-strike.
However, in 1914, Britain declares war on Germany on 4th August. During the war years, 1914-18, an estimated 2 million women replace men in traditionally male jobs. In 1916 a conference on electoral reform, chaired by the House of Commons Speaker, is set up and reports in 1917. Limited women’s suffrage is recommended. 1918
The Representation of the People Act (RPA) is passed on 6th February giving women the vote provided they are aged over 30 and either they, or their husband, meet a property qualification.
In 1918 The Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act is passed on 21stNovember allowing women to stand for Parliament. On 14th December that year women vote in a general election for the first time, 8.5 million women were eligible.
In 1928 The Equal Franchise Act is passed giving women equal voting rights with men. All women aged over 21 can now vote in elections. 15 million women are eligible. On 30th May 1929, women aged between 21 and 29 vote for the first time. This general election is sometimes referred to as the Flapper Election.
2024 feels very strange, with many people not knowing what to vote for, the best for them or the nation. It is not clear what the main parties’ manifestos are and what the consequences will be.
However, for most of us, our democratic right to vote is a recent right and it is important for us to exercise that right and engage in the process. This is difficult though when not one candidate has knocked on my door or been seen out canvassing for me to ask questions.
I heard somewhere that one person had asked for the option of ‘none of the above’ on her ballot paper. To estimate the number of people who are unimpressed with the candidates and their parties’ policies would be an interesting research finding but no help in a general election electing our future parliament and resulting government.
The immense dissatisfaction with the previous government and the options available to us after the election will lead to interesting times.
Most of us in previous generations would not have had the right to vote, this has only been our right for less than a century. Time to get lobbying that candidate and possible future MP, to represent us and what we consider important.