Elections start today for the European Parliament which represents the 28 Member States of the European Union. Following the Brexit referendum , the plan was that the UK would be out of the EU by now and therefore would play no part in the election – but we are still a member and so we still have to participate in the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The UK and The Netherlands vote today Thursday 23 May; Ireland will vote on Friday 24 May; and Malta on Saturday 25 May. Voting in the remaining Member States takes place on Sunday 26 May. Votes will be counted and results announced on Sunday and Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
UK voters will choose 73 Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in 12 multi-member regional constituencies. Each region has a different number of MEPs based on its population. The largest allocation is 10 seats in the South East Region and the smallest is three seats in the North East Region. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In each region except Northern Ireland, seats are allocated to parties in accordance with the number of votes won by each party using a system known as the D’Hondt method.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The D’Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats and is therefore a type of party-list proportional representation. The method is named after the Belgian mathematician Victor D’Hondt<\/a>, who described it in 1878 for proportional allocation of parliamentary seats to parties. <\/p>\n\n\n\n