It has been interesting to Mick and me to watch all the goings on about Brexit and the UK Election 2019.

Voting is being held today (Thursday 12th December) and it won’t be until the early hours of tomorrow morning (because the polls over here do not close until 10pm) that the outcome will be known. More than likely – it will result in another hung Parliament.

During our time this year in France, the fact that the UK Government could not deliver what had been voted on a few years previously, i.e. to leave the European Union, made regular news headlines. And not always in a positive way. The EU wants this to be sorted as much as the UK people.

The failure to deliver a Brexit Deal resulted in Theresa May being ousted by her party. Her gamble at an election in 2017 cost her dearly – the Conservatives ended up not have a working majority in the House of Commons (A majority here is 326 seats in the Parliament). The Conservatives won 317 seats (42.2% of votes) compared with 262 seats (40.0% of votes) for Labour, 35 seats for the Scottish National Party (3.1% of votes), 12 seats (7.4% of votes) for The Liberal Democrats and 10 seats (0.9% of votes) for The Democratic Unionist Party.

This certainly prevented any deals from being done.

The along came Boris Johnston, after Theresa May resigned as Leader of the Conservative Party in March this year, and he did no better. Despite his promises – stated ad nauseam – “We will get Brexit done!!”, “We must get Brexit done!”

But, they didn’t. And, he didn’t.

Today, when Mick and I went out shopping we spotted a few of the polling booths in and around Bristol. They looked a little different to the ones at home.

These were taken around 11am and although the booths don’t close until 10pm, there did not seem to be hundreds, or even dozens of people lining up to vote. Our experience on election days in Australia is often one of a long line up, waiting our turn to be crossed off the list. That’s a key difference here in the UK where voting is not compulsory as it is back home. It also might mean that there are a lot more Polling Booths open on election day over here (but I have no evidence for that).

In 2017, the ballot box turnout across the UK was 69%, which was higher than turnout at the 2015 and 2010 elections.

Let’s compare that turnout to the numbers for the referendum on Brexit in June 2016 – the possible cause for what is going on here at the moment.

In 2016, 46,500,001 people voted, representing 72.1% of registered voters. However, a breakdown in the statistics is interesting, because it does not really show a convincing win for either side of the Leave or Remain argument.

The stated result was 51.89% (17,410,742) voted ‘Leave’ and 48.11% (16,141,241) voted ‘Remain’.

But…….28% (18,099,999) of the population eligible to vote were not on the electoral register. There were more people not on the electoral register than voted for either campaign, and those who did not vote were only marginally smaller than either campaign’s share of the votes.

Why are people not registered I wondered?

It does not appear difficult to register, but I read that many people do not realise they are not eligible. Often they do not find out until they turn up to vote.

In the UK at the moment, this huge number, and proportion, of people eligible to vote who aren’t registered has become a point of concern for those interested in democracy.

The next UK election was not due to take place until 2022. That is pretty significant – it is almost 100 years since the last time an election was held at this time of the year. And on a Thursday – that seems really odd to Mick and me. In Australia, voting takes place on a Saturday.

This election is being held because Johnston saw no way out of the ‘deadlock’ – he needs a majority to achieve anything. Any leader does.

The leader of the party who wins a majority of the UK’s 650 constituencies automatically becomes Prime Minister. But if there’s no majority, they must look for help elsewhere.

So wait we must.

Another difference in UK elections compared with those in Australia is the time the outcome of the election, or at least certain ‘seats’ are known is very different. In Australia Polling Booths close at 6pm and results are usually know around 9pm or 10pm that same night. But here, because the booths don’t close until 10pm, the results aren’t known until the early  morning.

That means, Mick and I will find out around breakfast time!!

I predict one thing…. more people (a greater proportion than 69%) will vote this time when compared to the last three elections. Possibly, more than the Brexit Vote of 72.1%.