By George Lythgoe

The Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for a general election, which is due to take place on July 4.

A general election is where the PM asks for the permission of the monarch, King Charles III, to dissolve Parliament. Dissolving parliament usually takes several days, n which time current business in the House of Commons will have to be wrapped up. 

Polling day, when the general public cast their votes on who they want to be their next MP, usually takes place 25 working days on from when the election is called.

During this period, political parties will head out campaigning. This will consist of manifesto launches, leafleting, televised debates and public appearances.

Over the coming weeks every household will start to see their letterboxes and TV screens dominated by politicians vying for their vote in their local areas – which are called constituencies in politics.

Here is a breakdown of what happens through the general election process…

What happens on polling day (July 4)?

Voting can be done in person at polling stations, or ahead of polling day by post, or by proxy. Polling stations will open at 7am and close at 10pm on July 4. Each person gets what is called a ballot paper with the name and political party of each candidate that wants to be that area's MP.

Each person will put a cross in the box of the person they want to be presented by in the House of Commons. Once the polls close at 10pm the votes will be taken to counting halls in every constituency where the number of votes each election candidate gets is counted.

Whichever candidate gets the most votes wins that seat for their political party. This is what is called the first past the post system.

How do we know who wins?

It is heavily predicted that Labour will win the next general election, but to do that they will need to win 326 seats in parliament. This is half the number of seats, plus one, available in the House of Commons (650 in total). This is the number needed to command a majority. If the Labour Party manages to get this, as is predicted, the King will then invite them to form a government.

The party leader will then become the Prime Minister. 

What happens if no-one gets a majority?

When no individual party wins enough seats to get a majority, this is what is called a hung parliament. Usually, when this happens the political party with the most seats forms a coalition with a smaller party so they have enough seats to control the House of Commons. 

The last time this happened was in 2010 when the Conservatives formed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. This deal is usually formed with agreements on certain policies on both sides. 

If a coalition cannot be agreed, then the party with the largest number of seats can form a minority government. This means they would have to form agreements with a number of political parties in Parliament in order to support them as they go along. 

However, a minority government runs a greater risk of being outvoted and not having control of the House of Commons, which means they cannot get their policies through with overall agreement.

At the moment the Conservatives have 344 seats in the House of Commons, meaning that they can pass through bills without requiring support from other parties in the house. 

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