Elections

Section 3

Elections

                                                                                                              Politics is so expensive,            

                                                                                it takes a lot of money just to get defeated.

                                                                                                                              Will Rogers

Activity 1. Look through the topical vocabulary and learn by heart the words and word-combinations involved.   

    In a democracy, the country’s rulers are chosen in elections. Candidates run for election or stand for election. The campaign is the series of ads, television appearances, meetings and speeches designed to get support for a candidate.  The run-up to an election is the period leading up to an election, perhaps a longer time than the campaign itself.  People who shout out their disagreement when a politician makes a speech are hecklers, and what they do is heckle. Politicians on the hustings are electioneering. A very fast campaigning trip, with a candidate making a lot of speeches and appearances in a lot of places in a short time, is a whistlestop tour.  A tour consists of rallies, walkabouts. Candidates must be careful not to make gaffes, which are slips of the tongue or offensive remarks that damage their image. Spin doctors or spin controllers are consultants who try to minimize the effect of gaffes. Sometimes candidates search for damaging info about an opponent’s life. When they do this they are said to be digging for dirt or muckraking. Damaging info of this kind is a sleaze. If they use this info to attack their opponents they are accused of mudslinging. Victims of muckraking say that their opponents are guilty of conducting a smear campaign or a campaign of vilification against them. If allegations cannot be proved that person is said to have a Teflon coating. Between elections public opinion polls or surveys are conducted to measure public opinion and to predict or forecast election results. Polling organizations and the people working for them are pollsters. They interview or poll people. An exit poll is carried out just after people have voted as they are leaving the polling station. Between elections pollsters ask people if they approve of the performance pf politicians and parties, and the results are given as approval ratings or popularity ratings. The party which is most likely to win is the favourite or the front runner. Party with the best results is said to be ahead or riding high. When two parties have about the same amount of support they are said to be level pegging or running neck and neck. Parties not doing well are said to be behind or trailing behind. On election day voters go to the polls. They vote or cast their votes or ballot to elect candidates. People with the right to vote are voters and together make up the electorate. The proportion of people actually voting is the turnout and the total number of votes is the total vote. People not voting abstain from voting and are counted as abstentions. In some countries there are two rounds of voting. The top two candidates go on to second round in a run-off. Some parties are accused of electoral fraud, saying that the elections have not been free and fair. Vote-rigging (gerrymandering) occurs when ballot boxes are filled with fictitious ballot papers.  After elections there could be cabinet reshuffle, some ministers could resign, stand down or quit. Ministers who have lost all credibility are described as lame ducks. There may be a period before elections when an interim or caretaker government takes care of the everyday running of the country. The governments could be overthrown, deposed, topped off, toppled in the result of coup d’etat, putsch or military takeover by the military which seize power. When there’s a state of emergency, a curfew could be introduced.   

Activity 2. Read the text about the electoral system of England and present its merits and imperfections. Prepare a mini-report “The electoral system of Ukraine”.

                                                       The Electoral system

The system of voting

The simple majority system of voting is used in parliamentary elections in Britain. This means that the candidate with the largest number of votes in each constituency is elected, although he or she may not necessarily have received more than half the vote’s cast. It is thought that this system favours two-party competition, particularly when the parties’ support is concentrated geographically. It does not favour parties whose support is spread evenly across constituencies, as they tend to accumulate relatively small numbers of votes in each constituency and consequently do not win many seats. It is calculated that the Liberal Democrats are underrepresented in Parliament for this reason. Voting is by secret ballot.

The party system

For over 150 years Britain’s system of parliamentary democracy has been based on organised political parties competing to form government. Political parties are neither registered nor formally recognised in law, but the system depends on the existence of at least two parties in the House of Commons, each of which is capable of forming a government. Most candidates in elections and almost all winning candidates belong to one or other of the main political parties. Candidates who are members of smaller political parties or groups, or who do not belong to any party, may also stand. Since the Second World War the great majority of MPs have belonged to either the Conservative or the Labour party. The leader of the party that wins most seats at a general election, or which has the support of a majority in the new House of Commons, is by convention invited by the Monarch to form a government. He or she becomes Prime Minister and chooses the ministers who will together form the Government.

Voters

Who may vote – All British citizens may vote provided they are aged 18 years or over and are not legally barred from voting. Subject to the same conditions, citizens of other Commonwealth countries and the Irish republic who are resident in Britain may also vote at parliamentary elections. All voters must be registered as resident in a constituency on a specified date. British citizens living abroad may apply to be registered to vote for up to 20 years after leaving Britain. They must register to vote in the constituency in which they were last resident. British citizens who are working overseas as British Government employees also have the right to vote, regardless of how long they have been abroad. Voting in elections is voluntary. On average about 75% of the electorate votes.

Who may not vote – The following people are not entitled to vote in parliamentary elections: the Monarch, peers, and peeresses in their own right, who are members of the House of Lords; foreign nationals, other than citizens of Commonwealth countries and of the Irish Republic resident in Britain; people kept in hospitals under mental health legislation; people serving prison sentences; people convicted within the previous five years of corrupt or illegal election practices; young people under eighteen.

Candidates

Any person aged 21 or over who is British citizen, or citizen of another Commonwealth country or the Irish Republic, may stand for election to Parliament, providing they are not disqualified. Those disqualified include: people who are undischarged bankrupts; people sentenced to more than year’s imprisonment; clergy of the Church of England, Church of Scotland, Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church; members of the House of Lords; and a range of public servants and officials, specified by law, which includes judges, civil servants, some local government officers, full-time members of the regular armed forces and police officers, and British members of the legislature of any country or territory outside the Commonwealth. Candidates do not have to live in the constituencies for which they stand. Candidates must be nominated on official nomination papers, giving their full name and home addresses. A political or personal description of up to six words may be included. Ten electors must sign the nomination paper. At the same time a sum of 500 pounds must be deposited on behalf of each candidate: candidates who receive less than 5% of the votes cast in the subsequent election lose this deposit. Candidates from the main parties very rarely lose their deposits. However, smaller political parties or groups also put forward candidates, and individuals without party support also stand. 

Activity 3. Put each of the following words in its proper place in the passage below:

    election campaign  support   polling day   ballot box  vote  predict   opinion poll 

    polling station  candidate

People sometimes try to _______ the result of an election weeks before it takes place. Several hundred people are asked which party they prefer, and their answers are used to guess the result of the coming election. This is called an ______. Meanwhile each party conducts its _______ with meetings, speeches, television commercials, and party members going from door to door encouraging people to ______ their party. In Britain everyone over 18 is eligible to _____. The place where people go to vote is often known as _______ and a day people vote at is called______. The voters put their votes in a _______ and later they are counted. The _______ with the most votes is then declared the winner. 

Activity 4. Explain the difference between:

1. pro- and anti-
2. an election and a referendum

Activity 5. Listening.

1. You are going to listen to a radio interview with Geraldine Faulkes, a politician. She is talking about future trends and her party’s policies if it wins the general election. Listen and tick the points below which she mentions.

Falling unemployment                                  rising trade surplus

Greater provision for healthcare                   more money for foreign trade

Lower interest rates                                      closer links with Europe

Reduction in income tax                               more action on global warming

Lower rate of inflation                                  more action on poverty

Reduction in mortgage                                  more money for medical research

             1.2 Work in pairs. Can you remember what Geraldine Faulkes actually said about the points you ticked? 

Activity 6. This task includes a series of extracts from speeches and public comments made by famous people. Your task is to listen to them and recognize their function, ticking the columns.

  

Activity 7. Presidential elections. Two students of the group have to run for presidency. Their task is to compose the election campaign speech and address to the group. The task of the group is to choose the president.

Activity 8. Put one of the following words in each space in the sentences below. 

  With   for   against   to   in   between

                     a) I voted_______   the Liberal candidate

                     b) Put your voting papers______ the ballot box

3. He is very right-wing, so he’s ______ the socialists
4. She belongs _____ the Communist party
5. The Liberals formed an alliance_______ the Social Democrats
6. There’s a split ____the two parties
7. There’s a split ______ the party

Activity 9. Put each of the following words in its proper place in the passage below:

   Cabinet   alliance    right-wing    prime minister   split   coalition   majority    left-wing    opposition   one-party states

  In most countries, except _______, there are several different political parties. The one with the _______ of seats normally forms the government, and the parties which are against the government are called the _______. Sometimes no single party wins enough seats, and several parties must combine together in a ________ to form a government. The principal ministers in the government form a group called the _______. The leader of this group, and of the government, is the _______. Of course there are many different kinds of parties and governments. A socialist or communist party is often described as ______. A conservative party on the other hand is usually said to be _______. Political situations are always changing. Sometimes in a party or between two parties there is a big argument or deep difference of opinion. This is called a _____. When, on the other hand, two parties work together, this is sometimes called an ________. 

Activity 10. Define the department, reading its function:

1. …. handles all peaceful dealings with other countries, issues passports to American citizens who wish to travel abroad.
2. …. manages government finances, collect taxes, mints coins and prints paper money.
3. …. responsible for the nation’s security..
4. …. is headed by the attorney general, who acts for government in legal matters and moves against violators of federal laws.
5. …. protects and develops the nation’s natural resources and manages the national parks.
6. …. aids food production and looks after the interests of farmers.
7. …. is concerned with the working conditions, safety and welfare of the nation’s non-farm workers.
8. …. helps develop domestic commerce as well as trade with other countries.
9. …. addresses the nation’s growing energy problems.

10….. administers and coordinates more than 150 federal aid-to-education programs. 

The Department of Labor                   The Department of Defense

The Department of Justice                 The Department of State

The Department of Commerce           The Department of Agriculture

     The Treasury Department                  The Department of the Interior

     The Department of Energy                 The Department of Education 

Activity 11.  Listen to the dialogue “Elections” and answer the questions suggested by the teacher.

Activity 12. Work in pairs. Work out at least 5 reasons why people should vote.

Activity 13. Match the word combinations with definitions:

   1.civil disobedience                 6. a radical

   2. a conformist                         7. self-determination

   3. a dictatorship                       8. the establishment

   4. the head of state                   9. a license

   5. a middle of the road            10. the civil service

 

• if you are this, then technically you rule the country
• if you are one of those, you believe in complete political change
• if you are this, you like to behave in the same way as everyone else
• this consists of powerful people and organizations who support the social order
• this is an organized campaign involving breaking the law
• you might need one of these to get married, to drive, to own a gun
• this is a right for people to decide about their future for themselves, rather than let a colonial power do it for them
• if you live under one of these, then you live in a state controlled by one powerful person
• if you this, you have no strong political opinion
• the various departments of government

 

Activity 14. Choose the right variant of the word

1. By the early evening most people had administered\cast\selected their votes.
2. The government has decided to hold\introduce\organize an early election.
3. Voting for strike action must be done by secret ballot\electorate\poll.
4. Each Member of Parliament represents a specific candidate\constituency\convention.
5. Before the election, each party published its election brochure\manifesto\synopsis.
6. Mark Brown has been delegated\nominated\represented for the post of honorary treasurer.
7. It’s impossible to predict which way the election will go because there are so many indefinite\undecided\unknowing voters.
8. My sister has decided to candidate\put in\stand for parliament in the next election.
9. The party’s election campaign\movement\struggle proved to be successful.