Part I: Parliamentary franchise and its exercise Part I of the act declared that in future the United Kingdom would be divided into single-member
borough constituencies and
county constituencies. These terms replaced the former designations of
parliamentary borough/division of a parliamentary borough and parliamentary county/division of a parliamentary county (in Scotland "burgh constituencies" replaced
parliamentary burghs). There were to be 613 such constituencies, in place of the 591 under previous legislation. no longer had the right to vote in two constituencies. Constituencies which had been represented by more than one MP were also abolished. Persons eligible to vote were to be British subjects of "full age" (21 years) and "not subject to any legal incapacity to vote", provided that they were registered to vote in the constituency. Each voter was only permitted to cast their vote in one constituency, even if for some reason they were registered in more than one. The arrangements which had given plural votes to electors who met a property qualification because of their business or shop premises were abolished.
Short title, commencement and extent Section 80(6) of the act provided that part V of the act, and part VI as relates to part V, would come into force on 1 October 1948. Section 81 of the act provided that the act may be cited as the "Representation of the People Act, 1948" and may be cited as a
Representation of the People Act. == Number of constituencies ==