Factbox: How will the UK election work?

Election basicsBritain is a parliamentary democracy, meaning that the government is formed from lawmakers rather than being separately elected. The defining principle for any prospective government is that it has the support of a majority of lawmakers in the elected lower chamber of parliament, the House of Commons. The national election is thus the election for the House of Commons. Voters are asked to elect a member of parliament for their local constituency, which on average have about 72,000 voters. Britain’s first-past-the-post electoral system means a winner-takes all situation. There is no system of proportional representation for candidates who come second in each constituency. For the election to produce a majority government, the biggest party theoretically must win at least 326 seats of the 650 regional constituencies. But in practice, the threshold for a majority is around 323, because the Irish republican Sinn Fein party does not take up any seats it wins in Northern Ireland. A party which wins a majority will seek to implement policy proposals which it set out during the campaign. By convention, the unelected upper house, called the House of Lords, will not block or hinder policies that were pledged during the campaign.Who is in charge now?Parliament was officially dissolved on May 2 and all 650 seats declared vacant. Prime Minister Theresa May and her team of ministers remain in charge of their departments and retain their ministerial decision-making power. If a national emergency forces the government to act quickly, it may consult with the opposition informally to discuss the best course of action. When a new parliament is formed, it may be required to endorse actions taken during the interim period.What’s the likely outcome?Theresa May’s Conservatives currently hold a working majority of 17, and she called the early election in the hope of increasing it. The polls indicate she will win, though it is unclear by how much. There is a large discrepancy between the pollsters, even as the consensus is that May wins while Labour has closed the gap on the Conservatives. Polling firms widely predicted there would be no overall majority in 2015, with Labour possibly the largest party. The Conservative victory, and majority, came as a shock to pollsters and has prompted soul-searching.The role of the QueenQueen Elizabeth has the power to dismiss a prime minister or to make a personal choice of successor but a monarch has not exercised this right since 1834 and the tradition is considered archaic. By long-standing convention the queen does not get involved in party politics, and the formation of the next government is left to the parties to resolve amongst themselves.