General Election

*If you are looking for a list of previous General Elections, see Elections*

 **Number of General Elections** | 31

**General Elections** are the biggest elections in the MHoC and are considered the most important as they determine the Government for the next parliamentary term. The Speaker of the Commons is responsible for being the returning officer in General Elections. General Elections use the D'Hondt system of proportional representation to determine the result and ultmiately, assign the 50 seats.

## General Election Process

General Elections are divided into several stages and it takes roughly 21 days for the whole process to be completed.

#### **Announcement of a General Election**

There are 4 scenarios in which a general election may take place: if a general election is held in real life, if the Prime Minister calls one, if any of the conditions in the Guidance Document under "Coalition Breakup" are met, or if 6 months have passed since the last election (this can be postponed for up to 30 days at the Speaker’s discretion).

When there is a general election, the Speaker will create a notification thread, alerting parties and independent candidates that they have 7 days to send him/her their manifesto. It is worth noting that a party's manifesto is submitted on behalf of all the party members.

There are several rules concerning manifestos that parties and independents must obey:

* They must be less than 600 words (if a manifesto exceeds the word count, the Speaker will cut the manifesto at the 600-word mark).
* They may not contain more than two image files (it is worth noting that any text included in an image file counts towards the word limit. This text must be sent to the Speaker in TSR text format alongside the manifesto).
* They may contain one audio or video file that:
- lasts less than 90 seconds
- contains less than 200 words (not included in the manifesto word count)
- does not infringe on copyright law
* They may not contain pictures of, or quotes attributed to, any real-life figure, living or dead, political or otherwise.
* They must be sent to the Speaker by the deadline (any received after this time will be accepted at the Speaker's discretion).

Only a maximum of 16 parties and independents can stand in a general election, and parties and independents from a previous election will get priority over anyone else. The Speaker again has the discretion to remove people from standing in the general election.

During the seven day window after the announcement of the general election, a wash-up period will take place to clear the House of legislation. In this period, the Speaker will not set up any new threads.

#### **Manifestos are published and voting opens**

Seven days after the announcement of the general election, the Speaker will create another thread where all the manifestos will be posted. A secret poll will be put up with an option for each party/independent and an option for 'spolit ballot'. The majority of the debating will happen in this thread with the parties and independents challenging each other and putting forward their case as to why people should vote for them.

However, during general elections, unsolicited private messages cannot be sent to members of TSR who are not a member of the same party as the sender. This includes campaigning for votes and telling people to go and vote. However, following the successful passing of an amendment in 2016, the Speaker may request the Community Team to send out a mass PM on behalf of the Speaker, encouraging people to vote in the General Election. All TSR members with more than 100 posts and 3 months experience may vote in the election.

As aforementioned, the MHoC uses the D'Hondt method of proportional representation to determine how the 50 seats are allocated. If for any reason a 51st seat is required due to the d’Hondt method of calculations then it is permitted. There have been a few Constituency Proposals in the past, but due to the small voter base, proportional representation is the method that the MHoC has always used.

During the general election in the past, a few Speakers have run leadership debates between the leaders and deputy leaders of all the parties that are running. In September 2016, Quamquam123 proposed an amendment to formally integrate leadership debates into the general election procedure but due to a lack of support, he withdrew it.

#### **Results are announced**

Another seven days later, the Speaker will publish an exit poll of the results. At the same time, they will request the Community Team to send him or her a list of voters so that invalid votes can be removed. This usually means that the official results are declared a few days later. Two things then happen over the following week: parties select MPs to fill the seats they have been designated (how they choose depends upon the party) and coalition discussions take place. By the end of the week coalition proposals have to be submitted to the Speaker, and the party or coalition with the most seats gets to form the government. The party that tops the General Election standings is almost always the one which leads the government and more often than not, government is composed of more than just one party. The biggest remaining party forms the official opposition, and a cabinet and shadow cabinet are picked. The Speaker will formally declare the opening of Parliament and normal business in the House will resume.