Have you ever been with your mum or dad to go and vote?

They might go into a school- like ours and into a little booth like these.

Inside they put a cross on a piece of paper to choose one person they want to represent them.

At the end of the day all the crosses are counted.

The person with the most crosses is elected.

In our country there are two main kinds of election.

Local and national elections.

Local elections are for representatives on local and parish councils.

Local councils deal with housing, rubbish collection, schools, sports centres, care for those who need support and other local services.

Local councillors can be anyone over 21.

They go to meetings and make decisions for those in their local community.

Sometimes the people who voted for them agree with their decisions and sometimes they don’t.

The other kind of elections we have are national elections.

We elect members of parliament (M.P.) to represent us in the government of our country, at least every five years.

Your M.P. speaks for the people in your area in the House of Commons.

The national government, in London, makes decisions on many different things that affect your life.

These include: hospitals, schools, the environment, relations with other countries, the police and the economy.

There are 646 M.P.s and they are all different!

Do you know who your M.P. is?