Same same, but different

Yesterday was election day. And while some constituencies in the country still count their votes at this point, it became clear: Britain has a hung parliament, none of the main parties got an absolute majority. For the first time since 1974.

I never became so clear to me how different Britain really is from Germany regarding elections as today. They may both be a democracy – but that’s about it.

In Britain, you are not bothered by parties and their election campaigns for about a year in advance, with no way to escape. The General Election yesterday was announced only a month ago, leaving not much time for annoying election campaigns. It may be different where I live in London – I assume the majority here isn’t even allowed to vote.

The main newspapers all picked their favourites and placed them on the front page, something German newspapers would hardly ever do.

The Daily Mirror is traditionally campaigning for Labour

The Sun for the Coservatives in a, well, rather special way. Taking the iconic Obama picture, putting the iconic Obama slogan to a person standing for pretty much the the opposite when it comes to policies.

The Guardian already decided at the end of April to go for the Liberal Democrats:

“If the Guardian had a vote it would be cast enthusiastically for the Liberal Democrats. But under our discredited electoral system some people may – hopefully for the last time – be forced to vote tactically.”

They’d never do it on the front page though.

Oh, and for the Daily Star something else was the main news of the day, of course!

Britains vote traditionally on Thursdays instead of a more comfortable Sunday, meaning that people have to queue at polling stations after work in various constituencies like the London borough of Hackney, just to get to know after 45 minutes of queuing that polling stations close at 10pm straight and they won’t get in anymore. People willing to vote weren’t able to yesterday, making the system questionable.

The electoral system itself works on a first past the post basis. Britains don’t vote for the whole parliament, but just for the Member of Parliament (MP) in their own constituency. The one with the majority of votes gets the seat in Whitehall, while all other votes have absolutely no meaning whatsoever. If a Tory candidate gets 50,2% of the votes and a Labour candidate gets 49,8%, all the Labour votes count for nothing. The winner takes it all.

This worked well for decades, making the odd coalition discussion obsolete because usually only the two major parties gained seats anyway, or at least one of them gained enough to have the absolute majority, being able to govern on its own. But the system finally stopped working yesterday. Labour lost 88 seats, the Tories gained 96 (at this point, where two constituencies are still counting votes). The Tories got 303 seats altogether but would need 326 for the absolute majority. Labour has 258, the Liberal Democrates 57. A coalition now would be necessary.

But British traditionals all over the country, like some heard in the pub just yesterday, ruled out the option “coalition” completely. A “coalition” seems to be a 4 letter word for some Britains, something very unlikely that only happens in wartimes. “Coalitions? We only do that in war” was to be heard, as well as “We’re going to have new elections soon”.

But just as Germany in 2005, where none of the parties could form a government with their traditional coalition partners, the voter has decided and elections aren’t a “But I want to have a different vote” kind of thing. Politicians have to deal with what the voter has decided. But since David Cameron (leader of the Tories) is already planning on talking to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg, politicians in opposite to the pub-traditionals seemed to have realized today’s necessities.

But the British electoral system holds another big problem. If it wasn’t for the First past the post system, the situation would look totally different. In percentage, Tories gained 36%, Labour 29% and the Liberal Democrats a surprising 23% (leaving 12% to “others”, which include mainly regional parties like the Scottish National Party or Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland). Although the Liberal Democrats got almost a quarter of all the votes and just 6% less than Labour, they have a blasting 201 seats less than Gordon Brown’s party.

Now is that what you’d call democracy? The electoral system may have its tradition, and it was actually quite entertaining to watch that yesterday, too. After polling stations close at 10 pm TV stations sent live from Sunderland town halls, where votes were counted, Sunderland being the counstituency to have the priviledge of announcing it’s results first at about 11pm. Young campaign workers had made a chain to bring the ballot boxes from polling stations to the town hall as quick as possible. People were running around, everyone having a certain destiny, it looked much like a relay. And just a little like a combination of The Place That Sends You Mad in Asterix’ The Twelve Tasks and the “little messengers” in the human brain according to Once Upon A Time… Life. It was so different, and so fascinating to watch them doing it the traditional way. But that’s not really 21st century anymore. The hung parliament, that no one really wanted, clearly shows that.

Now talks about reforming the electoral system will begin, but I doubt that anyone will have the courage to get rid of the first past the post.

German electoral system may be incredibly complicated, so complicated that I wouldn’t want to explain it to anyone who hasn’t grown up with such a system, let alone in English language. But at least I never have to feel like wasting my vote.