Voting system favours political parties

The electoral system for England, Scotland and Wales will use closed regional lists. Under this arrangement most political parties put forward a list of candidates within each electoral region, listing them in order of priority (hence "regional list").

However, unlike Westminster and local elections, voters will only be allowed to choose the party they wish to vote for, not the individual candidate (hence the expression "closed" list). The only time it's possible to vote for an individual is where independent candidates unaffiliated to any political party are standing.

After the vote has been counted, the total number of seats within a given region is distributed between the political parties according to the share of the overall vote they win.  Only candidates placed at the top of a party's list have a realistic chance of becoming an MEP, the number elected from the list reflecting the strength of support in the election vote.

Only in Northern Ireland, where there is a different voting system, would you be allowed to vote for individual candidates in order of preference.

The South-East region has 10 seats.

Click on an MEP name
for their personal websites.

Current MEPs representing
the South-East

Marta Andreassen
Richard Ashworth
Catherine Bearder
Sharon Bowles
Nirj Deva
James Elles
Nigel Farage
Daniel Hannan
Caroline Lucas
Peter Skinner

MEPs from the 4 June 2009 elections took up their mandates on 14 July 2009.