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The next step would entail convening a meeting of the House of Commons, a ritual for which there is no fixed deadline other than the Charter requirement that it sit “at least once every twelve months.”

In this instance, that would mean on or before June 17, 2016. However, it’s unlikely that any incumbent prime minister would want to wait until the last possible moment to do so, as it might suggest a certain insecurity as to whether he or she would be able to survive that first confidence vote, which would likely take place within the next few days.

But it would be entirely within the bounds of accepted parliamentary protocol for that same incumbent prime minister to wait a few weeks — even a month or two — if he or she thought it would be possible to cut a deal with one of the other parties.

And even while those behind-the-curtains negotiations are underway, there would be nothing stopping those very same opposition parties from simultaneously starting their own discussions on possible power-sharing arrangements that would allow them to propose an alternate scenario should the pre-existing government go down to defeat.

That could mean a formal coalition, which generally involves a written agreement pledging support for a fixed period of time. The agreement would likely also spell out the conditions that each party would adhere to — for instance, which leader would serve as prime minister — as well as specific legislative or policy goals.