The UK went to polls on Thursday with incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron’s bid for a second term on knife-edge as his ruling Conservative Party was locked in a tense electoral battle with the opposition Labour in the country’s closest election in decades.
Britain’s party leaders took the lead as millions began voting. Prime Minister Cameron accompanied by wife Samantha was among the early voters at his Witney constituency in Oxfordshire.
In one of his final interviews before polling began, his message to the voters was: “The future of the country is in your hands. Don’t do something you will regret.”
The Opposition
Labour party’s Ed Miliband, the leader of the Opposition, who is hoping to make an entry into No.10 Downing Street as the new British Prime Minister cast his vote alongside wife Justine almost an hour earlier at his Doncaster North constituency towards southwest of London.
“It will come down to a few hundred votes in a few dozen constituencies. If you’ve got anything to do in the next 36 hours, cancel it,” was his final message.
Other party leaders, including Liberal Democrats’ Nick Clegg, United Kingdom Independence Party’s Nigel Farage and the Scottish National Party’s Nicola Sturgeon also cast their votes soon after the polls opened at 0700 (local time) at around 50,000 polling stations across the UK, which will remain open until 2200 (local time).
Fate of 650 Westminster MPs in Fray
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 50 million people registered to vote.
As well as the general election, there are more than 10,000 council seats being contested across 290 English local authorities.
Some votes have been cast before Thursday through postal voting, which accounted for 15 per cent of the total electorate at the 2010 general election, when the overall turnout was 65.1 per cent.
For the first time, people have been able to register to vote online.
(With PTI inputs.)
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