Election to the House

Chamber | Presiding Officers | Officers | Members | Work of the Keys | Election to the House | Seating Plan
Popular elections to the House of Keys date from 1867, when the vote was given to adult male property owners. Female property owners were given the vote in 1881 and full adult suffrage, delayed by the Great War, was introduced in 1919. All persons on the electoral roll over the age of 16 have been entitled to vote since 2006. Candidates for election to the House must be 18 or over and have been resident in the Island for five years.

Single Transferable Voting (STV) was introduced in 1986, along with the 15 constituencies below, but was abandoned for the General Election 1996 in favour of First-Past-The-Post (FPTP). In multi-seat constituencies with FPTP voters have up to two or three votes, but tactically can plump for their favoured candidate(s), which can have a marked effect on votes received by successful members. During its operation the transfer of votes under STV never altered the leading candidates in the first round, and often delayed the announcement of the result until the early hours of the following morning.

Elections are by the relative majority or ‘first past the post’ system. Voters may mark the ballot paper for up to as many candidates as there are seats to be filled, but a ballot paper is still valid if only one or two votes are marked in a multi seat constituency.

There are 15 constituencies as detailed below:

Douglas East 2}  
Douglas West 2} the town of Douglas
Douglas North 2}  
Douglas South 2}  
Ayre 1 the parishes of Bride, Andreas and Lezayre
Castletown 1 the town of Castletown
Garff 1 the village of Laxey and the parishes of Maughold and Lonan
Glenfaba 1 the parishes of German and Patrick
Malew and Santon 1 the parishes of Malew and Santon
Michael 1 the district of Michael and the parishes of Ballaugh and Jurby
Middle 1 the parishes of Braddan and Marown
Onchan 3 the district of Onchan
Peel 1 the City of Peel
Ramsey 2 the town of Ramsey
Rushen 3 the parishes of Arbory and Rushen and the villages of Port St. Mary and Port Erin

Prospective candidates may find the following link useful: www.gov.im/cso/election/?menuid=7678.

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GENERAL ELECTION RESULTS:

CONSTITUENCY MAPS: