Quote:
Originally Posted by Griff
So in GB you guys sort of identify with Labor or Tory but don't have to actually belong to a party?
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To vote for a party leader you have to be a dues-paying member of the party, or affiliate organisation (so, some affiliated unions have voting rights in Labour leadership elections). Sometimes there are minimum membership periods before you can vote. It's usually a matter for the parliamentary party (the sitting MPs of that party) to decide if there will be a challenge - so, there is currently a challenge going through on the Labour Party leadership - in order to be able to challenge the candidate must have so many nomination signatures from Labour MPs. If they get enough signatures and are able to challenge that then goes to the general party membership to vote.
But those are internal party elections. They don't happen as a matter of course as part of the general election system. Once a party has elected their leader, that leader stays as leader until they choose to stand down, or are challenged in a leadership bid by someone else in the party, which often happens in the wake of a bad election loss, or in the very rare case where a leader loses their parliamentary seat in the general election.
It's an entirely separate thing from the general election in which everybody can vote.
Although the focus is usually on the parties and party leaders, we're not voting for the Prime Minister in our elections - each small constituency votes for its MP to represent them in parliament. The leader of the party that wins the most seats in parliament is then the de facto prime minister and can form a government. If the prime minister resigns, his/her party then decides who their successor will be. Some people will be voting for an MP based purely on what party they belong to, others will be voting based purely on the person themselves, regardless of which party they belong to, some will vote with the party leadership in mind, most will vote with a combination of those factors in mind - but the only person they are actually voting for is their constituency MP. The only people that actually vote for the prime minister are the prime minister's own constituents who put him/her in parliament as their MP and the party members who voted for their party leadership, none of whom were voting in an election for prime minister.