Voters in the UK cast their ballot on Thursday in the country’s closest election in decades with incumbent Prime Minister David Cameron’s bid for a second term on a knife-edge as his ruling Conservative Party was locked in a tense electoral battle with the opposition labour.
Britain’s party leaders took the lead as millions began voting. A sunny, clear day offered the perfect setting for a high turnout, which began on a moderate note but is expected to pick up as the day progresses.
Indian-origin voters, including the 1.5 million diaspora population as well as 615,000 India-born students and other migrants currently based in the UK, are set to play their most proactive role as every vote will count in what is being described as a knife-edge poll.
like India, Britain has a first-past-the-post electoral system which means the party with the most votes rather than vote share has the upper hand. With poll pundits predicting a hung Parliament, the magic number on everyone’s mind is 326 — which is the number of MPs required for a majority in the 650-member House of Commons.
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."
labour party’s Ed Miliband, the leader of the Opposition who is hoping to make his 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 the 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 7 am (local time) at around 50,000 polling stations across the UK, which will remain open until 10 pm (local time).