British election results are Labour 356 seats, Conservative 197, Liberal Democrat 62, other 30. 1 seat is still undecided.

The share of the popular vote in the whole nation is: Labour 35.6%, Conservative 32.7%, Liberal Democrat 22.3%, other 4.4%.

Three smaller parties that had tried very hard to win at least one seat, failed to win any. They are the Green Party, whose best showing was 22% for a third place finish; the British National Party, whose best showing was 17%; and the U.K. Independence Party. However, the new, militantly anti-Iraq war Respect Party won a seat in London’s east end.

On May 4, the Louisiana Senate Government Affairs Committee passed SB 53, which would switch that state’s congressional elections from the current non-partisan system (except that party labels are permitted), to a standard closed primary. The bill would let each qualified party decide for itself whether to let independents vote in its congressional primaries.

SB 53 provides for primaries for all qualified parties. Louisiana now has 3 qualified parties (Democratic, Republican, Libertarian) and the Greens are about to qualify. If only one person filed in a party primary, then that primary for that office would not be held and the one candidate would be deemed nominated.

A similar bill is pending in the House, HB 358, but it differs somewhat from SB 53. HB 358 says that small qualified parties should nominate by convention, not by primary.

On May 3, Congressman Tom Davis (R-Virginia) introduced HR 2043. It temporarily expands the size of the US House of Representatives, until 2011. It would give a full seat to the District of Columbia, and another seat to Utah. Utah is the state that came closest to getting another seat in the reapportionment of 2001. Since it is expected that the new Utah seat would elect a Republican, and the new District of Columbia seat would likely choose a Democrat, Davis hopes both major parties will support his bill.