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Polls open in Britain's knife-edge national election

Conservatives and Labour are neck-and-neck, with neither likely to win clear majority, triggering an intense period of wrangling and uncertainty as largest party tries to form government.

Polls have opened in Britain's national election, a contest that is expected to produce an ambiguous result, a period of frantic political horse-trading and a bout of national soul-searching. Polls are open Thursday from 7am until 10pm.

 

 

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives and Ed Miliband's Labour Party are running neck-and-neck, and neither looks able to win a majority of Parliament's 650 seats.

 

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Many voters are turning elsewhere -- chiefly to the separatist Scottish National Party, which will dominate north of the border, and the anti-immigrant UK Independence Party. UKIP is third in opinion polls but Britain's electoral system means it can win at most a handful of seats.

 

Counting the votes in Britain's election will take a matter of hours. But if no party wins outright, it may take days or weeks of negotiation to forge a workable government. 

 

David Cameron (Photo: EPA)
David Cameron (Photo: EPA)
  

By Friday, the country will know how many seats each party has won in the House of Commons. If either the Conservatives of Labour has more than half the 650 seats, they can quickly form a government.

 

But almost no one thinks that will happen. Polls predict a "hung Parliament," in which no party has a majority, triggering an intense period of wrangling and uncertainty.

  

Political wrestling

In Britain's parliamentary system, the test of a government is whether it can command the support of the House of Commons. In theory, that takes 326 seats, but in practice it's about 323: the Speaker does not vote, and Irish nationalists Sinn Fein, who had five seats before the election, do not participate.

 

If no party has a majority, political leaders will negotiate to put together groupings that can secure a majority of votes.

 

Ed Miliband (Photo: AP)
Ed Miliband (Photo: AP)

 

There is no rule saying the party with the most seats gets the first shot at talking to other parties about forming a government, but there will be unofficial pressure for that to happen. Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg says he will speak first to the biggest party, although there are likely to be parallel and overlapping talks.

 

"I've described it like freestyle wrestling," said Peter Riddell of the Institute for Government. "Anyone can talk to anyone else, and it may well be that the second-largest party is in an easier position to form a government than the largest party."

 

Queen Elizabeth II formally appoints the prime minister, but her role is symbolic. Once the political picture is clear, current Prime Minister David Cameron will go to Buckingham Palace -- either to tell her he can form a government, or to resign and ask her to summon Labour leader Ed Miliband.

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.07.15, 09:51
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