Archive:
(This document is for archive/historical
purposes)
The first direct elections to the European Parliament took place in 1979. Elections have taken place every five years since then. Prior to the 1999 elections the first-past-the-post electoral system was used to elect the British members of the European Parliament.
On 14 January 1999 the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999[1] received Royal Assent. Its effect was that future elections to the European Parliament, starting with those in June 1999, would be conducted using a regional list system. Under the new simple regional list system electors have the option of voting for a political party's list of candidates or for an individual candidate[2]. Elections to the European Parliament in Northern Ireland continue to be conducted using the single transferable vote system, as they have since 1979, and this review does not concern itself with Northern Ireland.
Following every national election the Home Office carries out a review to see what lessons can be learned and what might be done better at future elections. This review of the European Parliamentary elections which took place on 10 June 1999 is part of that series.
However, unlike at previous elections there was a new electoral system which required a completely new set of regulations and new rules governing matters such as the nomination procedure and the counting of the votes. This review is therefore necessarily detailed, particularly in respect of procedural matters.
The review has been carried out by two officials in the Home Office Constitutional Unit, Paul Regan and Gemma Pearson[3]. The review team has sought faithfully to record the views that have been expressed to it but, clearly, since it comprises members of the civil service, the degree to which this report can comment on controversial, political issues is limited.
The review has involved three main elements, reflecting the three groups directly affected by the new electoral system: electoral administrators, political parties and the electorate.
The first element was a series of discussions with electoral administrators both individually and collectively including both regional and local returning officers.
The second was a series of meetings with representatives of the national headquarters of most of the main political parties[4]. The review team would like to record its gratitude to all of those who participated in these meetings and discussions both for so willingly giving up their time and for the candour with which they spoke.
The third was a study of the available research on the 1999 European Parliamentary elections. The Home Office commissioned both quantitative and qualitative research into the public's perceptions of the elections. The review team were also able to draw from various other studies, including the evaluation of the training programme for electoral administrators and the Home Office publicity campaign.
It was the review team's hope - and intention - that the review should have been completed in the autumn of 1999. However the Government's decision that electoral legislation should be introduced early in the 1999/2000 Parliamentary session[5] meant that the review team were transferred temporarily to other duties, becoming a Bill team instead. Only when work on that Bill and the immediate follow up (the need to provide orders for the pilot schemes being run at the local elections in May 2000) was completed was work on the review able to resume.
Home Office
May 2000