London: Millions of voters flocked to polling stations across the UK on Thursday for the country’s first December election in nearly a century, with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn among the first to cast their ballots in London.
Polling stations across all constituencies of the United Kingdom – England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland – opened at 07:00 GMT where a total of 3,322 candidates are standing for election to 650 seats in the House of Commons.
Long queues were reported outside a number of polling stations, as initial turnout appeared to be brisk after a closely fought campaign billed by the Conservatives and the Labour as the “most important in a generation”.
The snap election had been called by Johnson in a bid to win a majority for his Conservative Party and get his Brexit deal through Parliament.
The UK is due to leave the European Union (EU) but has failed to find parliamentary consensus on the terms of that exit, missing repeated deadlines – the last one being on October 31.
While Johnson has been keen to characterise this as a Brexit election with the party’s “Get Brexit Done” message with the new January 31, 2020 deadline in sight, the Opposition Labour Party and others have been focussed on highlighting his Tory government’s failures across domestic issues such as the state-funded National Health Service (NHS).
Johnson cast his vote at a central London polling station, taking his dog Dilyn along with him. Labour leader Corbyn, Liberal Democrat leader Jo Swinson, Scottish National Party (SNP) leader Nicola Sturgeon, Green Party co-leader Jonathan Bartley and Wales’ Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price all cast their votes.
Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage said he has already cast his ballot by postal vote. Under election day broadcast norms, it is expected for all parties to refrain from projecting party political analysis and a reference to opinion poll results is also kept at bay until the first exit poll result is declared at 22:00 GMT as soon as polling stations close. (PTI)
