But there are no regulations on political advertising.

There are dozens of smaller parties contesting the UK's General Election. Some are single issue parties, some are independents, some parties contest multiple seats, some contest only one.

Some parties are funded by individuals - some by companies.

Here's a thought experiment. What would stop the Red Apple Cigarette Company forming the "Legalise Tobacco Party"?

Their (hypothetical) platform is to allow smoking in public, lower the age of tobacco consumption to 14, remove taxes on cigarettes, and the resumption of tobacco advertising.

Single issue parties, which have the sole aim of decriminalising various narcotics, are a long-standing feature of British politics. The LTP just focusses on tobacco.

The UK's Electoral Commission has some rules for the registration of political parties. They're mostly around making sure names and logos aren't too similar to existing parties. There's also various rules around funding and other bureaucratic stuff.

If our theoretical Legalise Tobacco Party wished to contest every seat in the UK, they could spend about £34 million on advertising. They could run adverts in the press, on billboards, social media, and even - possibly - party political broadcasts on TV. All with a simple message:

Smoking is cool!

Vote for us to reduce the price of delicious Red Apple Cigarettes. Vote for the smoother tobacco - preferred by doctors - and suitable for children! We're the only cigarette with pep! And your vote guarantees that you'll look extra sexy while puffing on our brand. Vote for freedom! Vote for smoking!

Political adverts aren't regulated. The political party can make whatever claims they like, right?

As far as I can see - and I am neither a political scientist nor legal scholar - there's very little to stop a sufficiently determined company (or group of companies) from forming a political party. And there's not much that can be done about a political party making dodgy claims.

They might not get many votes, and it might cause enormous backlash to their brand, and I dare say the law would tighten after a stunt like this. But what would stop a group of mad billionaires from funding a political party in order to circumvent advertising restrictions?

As such, constituencies are generally more equal in terms of electorate. But, of course, geography trumps geometry. So the Isle of Wight now has two constituencies of 56k and 54k, whereas the average constituency has 73k.

I wanted to know if these new boundaries meant that a political party could win the majority of votes, but still not get a majority of seats³. So I downloaded the data.

There are 650 seats in The UK. Obviously, if 649 of them had turnouts of 3 people - 2 voting for Party X and 1 for Party Y - and the last seat had 74k people vote for Y, then X wins with a minority of the national vote. But let's go for something more realistic.

The total electorate is 47,558,348⁴. Therefore, a party would need 23,779,175 votes to win a national majority.

If Party X won 100% of the vote in the most populous 316 constituencies, they'd have 23,844,185 votes. If Party Y won 100% of the vote in the remaining 334 constituencies, they'd have 23,714,163 votes.

So, yes, it is technically⁵ possible for a political party to win the majority of votes but still not win the majority of seats. In fact, a party could win 24,322,616 votes (51.1%) and still be one seat short of a plurality.

But what about…?

Is this probable? No. Even in the wildest fantasies of party faithful, no one is winning 100% of the vote in any constituency. England, Scotland, Wales, and NI each have their own political parties and vastly different electorate.

But is it possible? Yes. If Party X won the 326 least-populous seats with 100% of the vote, they would have a majority in Parliament yet only have 48.6% of the popular vote.

"It may seem surprising but there simply is no single listing for all prospective parliamentary candidates. We want people to make an informed choice and that's difficult because so many new people are standing this time - and a record number of incumbent MPs are standing down because of expense scandal," said Edmund von der Burg from YourNextMP.

One recent poll (PollLab 10/3/10) found nearly half of voters cannot name their MP and three quarters have no idea who their candidates are.

The message from four independent groups which collect and display candidate data online (YourNextMP, hustings.com, iElect UK & ivote2010) is a simple one – don't leave the decision about who to vote for until polling day – check out the candidates first and make them work for your vote.

In recent weeks, the British media has touted this election as the "first truly digital election." Online tools such as myconservatives.com and its Labour counterpart membersnet are being used in local campaigns to recruit volunteers and collect donations. But, Frances Harrison from iElect UK argues that the Internet's greatest impact is in empowering the ordinary citizen and allowing undecided voters to learn more about candidates.

"The much-touted digital election campaign is not just about new communication channels for the big parties – it's just as much about empowering ordinary citizens and giving them a voice to disseminate information," said Harrison.

YourNextMP, which is affiliated to DemocracyClub, allows any member of the public to upload candidate names, photos and details online. Hustings  compares candidates in much more detail in the key marginal seats. While iElect UK is an iPhone app with candidate data and iVote2010 is aimed at any mobile phone with a web browser.

WHO WE ARE IN DETAIL

YourNextMP is a comprehensive list of candidates for the general election which is made freely available as a website and as data downloads for others to build on. The details are editable in a wiki-like manner and many of the contributions are from members of the public. By ensuring that their details are on YourNextMP candidates can be sure that they will appear on all the services built on the data that it shares.

Contact: Edmund von der Burg Site: http://www.yournextmp.com/

iElect UK is a new, free iPhone app that helps you know who to vote for. It allows users to find their constituency, using GPS or postcode, and then view a list of candidates as well as the MP. The user can ask to be contacted by any of the politicians. The idea being to promote a conversation between the electorate and their representatives. It's been developed by two London women: an ex BBC journalist & promotional marketing manager.

Contact: Frances Harrison or Nerissa Martin Site: www.crowdspeak.co.uk

Hustings gives links to sites being used by candidates for their online campaigning, e.g. twitter, facebook, youtube, flikr, winkball etc. It also collates news on candidates and offers candidates the option to upload their own data such as podcasts, photos and videos.

Contact: James Evans Site: www.hustings.com

iVote2010 is a mobile site that allows any phone with a web browser to find their prospective parliamentary candidates.  The site has been tested on over 250 of the UK's most popular phones.  Visitors can use iVote2010.co.uk to contact their PPC's by phone, text or email. It also provides help in registering to vote - with the phone number and address of their local council.

Contact Terence Eden Site: http://iVote2010.co.uk