Who elects a prime minister?

Answer 1

Ceremonially, the prime minister is appointed by the sovereign. However, in reality, the prime minister is indirectly selected by the voters. The voters determine who sits in Parliament. The Prime Minister must be able to lead parliament, that is control half the votes in Parliament.

Answer 2

The prime minister is chosen by colleagues at a post election Cabinet meeting where most portfolios are decided.

Answer 3

Canada has a Westminster parliamentary system of government. As such, the

Prime Minister is not elected at all. She or he is appointed by the Queen's representative, the Governor General of Canada.

However, individual Canadian Members of Parliament are elected, and there is an unwritten constitutional rule that the Governor General must appoint a person with the support, or "confidence" from more than half of Members of Parliament.

In cases where more than half of Members of Parliament belong to the same political party, the Governor General will typically appoint the leader of that party as Prime Minister. Otherwise, however, it is simply a question of which Member of Parliament (or Senator) can convince a majority of elected Parliamentarians to support her.

Sometimes, a Prime Minister who originally had the confidence of a majority of elected Members of Parliament subsequently loses that confidence. In such cases, the Prime Minister will resign. If the Governor General notices that there is someone else who is supported by a majority of MPs, then she may appoint that person as Prime Minister. Otherwise, she may dissolve the House of Commons, and hold a fresh election.

The most recent federal election took place on October 14, 2008. The country is was divided into 308 electoral districts (called 'ridings'). The voters in each riding elect one person to represent that riding in the House of Commons. Therefore, there are 308 members of the House of Commons.

In each electoral district, there were several candidates seeking election to the House of Commons. Most of the candidates were members of political parties, had previously been chosen by one of the political parties as the person it would support in the election. Other candidates were not supported by any political party.

Each political party has a leader, who was chosen by the members of that party. There are about 20 registered political parties in Canada, but only four political parties are represented in the House of Commons. The remaining political parties have been unable to get a single member elected in any riding.

As mentioned above, an individual is more likely to obtain the support of the majority of Members of Parliament when the majority of Members of Parliament belong to the party which he or she leads. In such circumstances, her government is referred a 'majority government.'

When the prime minister does not lead a political party whose members form the majority in Parliament, her government is referred to as a 'minority government'. Despite this term, a Prime Minister's minority government remains in office only as long as she is supported by a majority of Members of Parliament. Thus, a government cannot be assured of sufficient 'confidence' of to continue governing. The last three elections in Canada have resulted in minority governments.

A minority Prime Minister may try to gain this support by developing compromise policies that are acceptable to a majority of those who were elected. She or he may also threaten to ask for a new election if her or his legislation is defeated. This threat may be effective where a Member of Parliament lacks sufficient funds to explain her position in a new election.

Answer 4

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is appointed by the Queen, with agreement from the House of Commons (the elected members of Parliament). This is normally a mere formality and the leader of the party with the most seats generally gets appointed.

Answer 5

The Prime Minister of the UK is not elected. He or she is appointed by the Monarch (the Queen). In order to be eligible to serve as Prime Minister, a candidate must meet three conditions:

1. He or she must be a sitting Member of Parliament.
2. He or she must be able to command the confidence of the House of Commons (i.e., survive a motion to remove him or her from office and pass major legislation).
3. He or she must command supply (be able to pass an annual budget; effectively synonymous with confidence).

However, because the House of Commons is directly elected and British politics is heavily party-based, this means that the People of Britain effectively chose their Prime Minister in a general election.

General elections must be held every five years (on average though, they are held every four). During a general election, every Member of Parliament is up for election in their constituency - a geographic district. To be elected as an MP, you need to win the most votes in your constituency (but not more than half of all the votes). Currently, there are 650 constituencies, each electing one MP. The vast majority of candidates are put forward by political parties - because only the most votes are needed to win in each seat, the two most popular parties, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, win the most seats, whilst the third-placed Liberal Democrats are dramatically under-represented. Most minor parties, unless they are very regional (like the Scottish National Party), do not stand a chance at winning seats. Only one MP, Caroline Lucas, represents a nation-wide party (the Green Party) that is not one of the "big three" mentioned above.

The result of this system is that the Prime Minister is chosen on the basis of which major party has won the most seats. If one party wins more than half of the seats in the House of Commons, then that party's leader becomes Prime Minister - thus the choice at a general election is effectively between the Conservative or Labour leader, all though the vast majority of British voters see it as a choice between parties, and a substantial minority make their decision based purely on their local candidates. If neither the Conservatives or Labour win a majority of seats (as happened in February 1974 and in 2010), then the two parties will try to form a coalition (share power) or confidence agreement (secure support without sharing power) with other parties to make up their numbers. In both recent hung parliaments, the largest party has succeeded in doing this, and thus that party's leader has become Prime Minister. In US terms, Parliament is both congress and the electoral college.

Since 1922, every Prime Minister has come from the Conservative or Labour Parties. The last Liberal Prime Minister served from 1916 - 1922. This means that the only people who ever actually have the opportunity to elect the Prime Minister directly are the members of these two parties, in closed primaries.

It is worth noting that no Prime Minister has ever been 'elected' at a general election with more than 50% of the vote in the UK since universal suffrage, and this is largely uncontroversial in the UK, all though Clement Attlee [Labour] and Anthony Eden [Conservative] have both come close with 49.7% of the vote in 1945 and 1955, respectively - if one excludes Northern Ireland, where Labour and the Liberals do not stand candidates but instead endorse local parties, then Attlee won more than half the British vote in 1945. Tony Blair, who won the largest number of seats (419 of 659 in 1997) for any ruling party since 1931 and is the most popular post-war Prime Minister, won just 43.2% of the vote at the peak of his popularity in 1997.

Answer 6

The prime minister of the UK is appointed by the Queen.

However, it is usual for the King or Queen to invite the leader of the parliamentary party with the majority of parliamentary seats (following a democratic election) to form a government.

Following this invitation the person asked has to go away and try and form a cabinet of ministers who will work for them. If they can do this then they tell the King or Queen and they become appointed as Prime Minister.

Obviously the various political parties in the United Kingdom have different procedures for electing a leader BUT in all cases the leader appointed has to be a member of parliament (upper or lower chamber).

Answer 7

The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom comes from the party with the majority members of parliament. The parliament has 645 members.

Answer 8

House of Lords