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European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The European Parliamentary Elections Act 1999 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (1999 Chapter 1 ). Its long title is "An Act to amend the European Parliamentary Elections Act 1978 so as to alter the method used in Great Britain for electing Members of the European Parliament to make other amendments of enactments relating to the election of Members of the European Parliament and for connected purposes."
The Act amended the procedures on European elections in the United Kingdom. It received Royal Assent on 14 January 1999, after the Parliament Act had been invoked, as the House of Lords had rejected the bill six times, refusing to accept the change in the electoral system proposed.
It was passed mainly to change the electoral system used for electing MEPs from First Past the Post to Closed list Party List in England, Scotland and Wales. Single Transferable Vote was retained in Northern Ireland. The UK was divided into twelve electoral regions, nine in England (matching the regions of England) and one in Scotland, one in Wales and one in Northern Ireland. It did not change the number of MEPs elected from the UK.
The Act led to a great many more MEPs being returned from the minor parties in the 1999 European elections, with more Liberal Democrats, along with the first national representatives for both the Green Party and the United Kingdom Independence Party.