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Britain into General Elections

Britain into General Elections
folder_openUnited Kingdom access_time6 years ago
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Local Editor

Polling stations have opened across Britain in an election to choose a new government.

Britain into General Elections

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 10 pm Thursday as voters choose 650 lawmakers for the House of Commons.

Prime Minister Theresa May called the snap election in hopes of increasing the Conservative Party's slim majority in Parliament, and strengthening her hand in European Union exit talks.

The campaign did not go to plan. May was criticized for lackluster campaigning and two deadly attacks turned the election into a debate about national security.

May says the Conservatives will build a "stronger, fairer and more prosperous Britain," while opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn says he would govern "for the many, not the few."

Polls suggest Labour has narrowed the Conservatives' lead.

Meanwhile, opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, an anti-war campaigner deemed unelectable by a majority of his own lawmakers, has run an energetic campaign promising change and an end to austerity.

While May has been touring target seats around the country, delivering slogan-heavy speeches to small groups of hand-picked activists, Corbyn has drawn large crowds to open-air rallies.

Polling experts -- many of whom failed to predict the referendum vote to leave the European Union last year -- are now wary of calling the outcome.

While most still expect a Conservative victory, predictions of the margin vary widely, and one shock forecast model even predicted May could lose her majority of 17 in the 650-seat House of Commons.

"I'd still put my money on a comfortable Tory win -- but who knows?" said Tim Bale, politics professor at Queen Mary University of London.

Speaking to reporters on her plane during a final burst of campaigning on Wednesday, May insisted she had no regrets about calling the vote three years early.

"I've enjoyed the campaign," she said. "There is a very clear choice for people when they come to vote, between the coalition of chaos of Jeremy Corbyn, or the strong and stable leadership with me and my team."

Asked what would constitute success, the 60-year-old vicar's daughter said: "I never predict election results.

Corbyn, a 68-year-old left-winger who has never held ministerial office and defied the odds to win the Labour leadership two years ago, urged supporters in Glasgow to think big.

"Wouldn't it be great if on Friday we woke up to... a Labour government that will be a government for all of our communities across the whole of the country, to deliver that social justice that we all crave?" he said.

An exit poll will give an indication of the outcome, although final results will not emerge until early Friday.

"When people ask me for a prediction, I have to say I know that I don't know," veteran BBC pollster David Butler said.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team

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