Protest Voting

Definition:

Where voters cast a ballot in favour of a party or candidate they would not normally support in order to send a message either to their ‘natural’ party, or to the government of the day

WHEN DOES IT HAPPEN?

More prevalent in second order elections (local, regional, European), where the outcome is less crucial – it does not affect who will form a government

Also frequently takes place in by-elections too

Link to Voting Context Model

WHO BENEFITS?

UKIP perform poorly in UK General Elections, however they generally perform well in European elections that take place ‘mid term’.

Often fails to carry through to next General Election

2004 Euro 16.1%

2005 GE2.8%

2009 Euro 16.5%

2010 GE 3.1%

Recent UKIP

results

People may abstain, or vote for smaller parties in order to punish the government

Bethnal Green and Bow – 2005 General election

• The election was in the midst of the Iraq War hangover

• Labour’s vote dropped around UK, but especially in constituencies with large Muslim communities.

• A bitter campaign was fought between former Labour MP George Galloway and sitting Labour MP Oona King

• Galloway overturned a 10,000+ Labour majority Paxman v Galloway

European Election 2009

• Turnout was poor – 34%• Background to election was

Brown’s leadership and his handling of the ‘credit crunch’

• Party List system meant UKIP pushed Labour into 3rd and Lib Dems into 4th place in both seats and votes

• Greens and BNP gained 2 seats each

UKIP WEST MIDLANDS

Eastbourne 1990

• By-election caused by the death of Sitting Tory MP Ian Gow. He was killed by a Provisional IRA car bomb

• 16,000 Tory majority in 1987 – a ‘safe’ seat• Overturned by Lib Dem David Bellotti who won

by 4000+• Backlash mainly thought to be against Thatcher

and the Poll Tax• Tories regained the seat at the General Election

in 1992, and won a majority in the Commons

Card game

• Split into pairs• Each player takes a turn. • Card is held up by one player, the ‘listener’ – the

other player – the ‘talker’ - looks at the key term and has a minute to talk on that topic.

• Listener listens (!) and counts how many they get right in a minute

• After the minute is up, the ‘talker’ is shown answers they missed by the ‘listener’

• Swap