HONG KONG — In spite of the United Kingdom's robust and rumbustious election campaign, once the votes were counted and the winning members of Parliament (MPs) were declared, it was clear that the U.K. is suffering a dangerous and growing democratic deficit.

Yes, this election has been different and there is the excuse that the voters returned a hung parliament, where no party has a majority, so there is lots of horse trading that has to be done in private to try to put together a workable government with sufficient support to tackle pressing problems, which include mounting government deficits and debts, high unemployment and a fragile currency.

The Conservatives claim a moral victory by being the biggest party, with 306 of the 650 seats and 36.1 percent of the popular vote, but not enough to form a majority. Brown and his Labour Party that has ruled for three elections and 13 years won only 258 seats with 29 percent of the popular vote, but still maintains the constitutional right to continue in office in the absence of any other leader with "a mandate." The Liberal Democrats won 23 percent of the popular vote but got only 57 seats because of the British first-past- the-post electoral system under which someone can be elected with far fewer than half the vote.