European (South West Region)

Every 5 years voters across the whole country elect Members of the European Parliament by going to the polling station and voting for them

The United Kingdom has been split into 12 electoral regions and each region has a number of seats allocated to it.  Torridge District Council is within the South West Region and we have 6 seats. 

How do People get elected?
The number of votes for each Political Party and Individual Candidates is added up across the Region by the Regional Returning Officer who then works out the number of seats each Party should get and whether any Individual Candidate is elected.

The way this is worked out is called the d'Hondt method (named after its Belgian inventor). It is the most widely used system of proportional representation in the world.

The number of valid votes cast for each Party and Individual Candidate is divided by the number of seats allocated + 1.

The party with the highest number of regional valid votes gains the first seat their total is then divided by 2 (1 seat allocated +1). This is then repeated for the remaining regional seats.

The next European elections will be held in May/June 2019.