General Election - Wikipedia

Main articles: Elections in the United Kingdom and United Kingdom general elections overview

The term general election in the United Kingdom often refers to the elections held on the same day in all constituencies of their members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons.[3]

Historically, English and later British general elections took place over a period of several weeks, with individual constituencies holding polling on different days. However, from the 1918 election onwards, the elections in all constituencies have been held on the same day. There has been a convention since the 1930s that general elections in Britain should take place on a Thursday; the last general election to take place on any other weekday was that of 1931.[4]

Under the terms of the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011, in force until March 2022, the period between one general election and the next was fixed at five years, unless the House of Commons passed one of the following:

• A motion of no confidence in the Government sooner than that, and did not pass a motion of confidence in a new Government within fourteen days[2]
• A motion, approved by two-thirds of its members, resolving that a general election should take place sooner[2]
• A proposal from the prime minister to reschedule an election mandated by the Act to no later than two months after the original date[2]

Although not provided for in the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, an early election could also be brought about by an act of parliament specifically calling for a general election, which (unlike the second option above) only required a simple majority.[citation needed] This was the mechanism used to precipitate the December 2019 election, when the Early Parliamentary General Election Act 2019 was enacted.[5]

The Fixed-term Parliaments Act was repealed by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act 2022.[6]

The term general election is also used in the United Kingdom to refer to elections to any democratically elected body in which all members are up for election.[citation needed] Section 2 of the Scotland Act 1998, for example, specifically refers to ordinary elections to the Scottish Parliament as general elections.[7][need quotation to verify]