UK General Election

[mykfin]

Voting starts in general election

Voting will take place in 46,000 polling stations
Voters are going to the polls in the UK general election at the end of a 30-day campaign.
Polling stations will remain open in 645 constituencies until 2200 BST, with the first results due at about 2345.

But it will not be clear who will form the next government until the early hours of Friday morning.

Voting has been postponed in the 646th constituency, Staffordshire South, because one of the candidates died after nominations closed.

Any of the record six million people who elected to vote by post, but have not yet sent in their ballots, can hand them in at polling stations.

Leaders' votes

Local elections are also taking place in 34 county councils and three unitary authorities in England. There are also four mayoral contests.

There are also elections in all 26 councils in Northern Ireland.

TIMETABLE
Thursday 0700 BST: Polling stations open
2200: Polling stations close
2245: First results expected
Friday 0100: National picture begins to emerge

Labour leader Tony Blair will cast his vote in his Sedgefield constituency, with Conservative leader Michael Howard voting in Folkestone and Hythe and Liberal Democrat Charles Kennedy in Ross and Skye.

There will be an increased police presence near polling stations in Westminster and other parts of London.

At the end of the last Parliament, Labour had 410 MPs, the Conservatives 164 and the Liberal Democrats 54.

The Scottish National Party also have five seats, Plaid Cymru four, the Democratic Unionists seven, the Ulster Unionists five, Sinn Fein four, the SDLP three, and one each for Respect, Independent and Independent Kidderminster Hospital and Health Concern.

Postal votes

To gain a majority at this election, when boundary changes mean there are fewer seats available, one party needs to win 324 seats.

Sunderland South was the first to declare its result in 2001, just 43 minutes after the polls closed.


More people will vote by post than ever before

But the national picture of how the parties stand will not emerge until at least 0100 BST on Friday.

Attention will also be on turn-out, which in 2001 fell to 59%, the lowest level since 1918.

Election organisers hope postal voting will help turn-out, although there have been concerns about the security of the system against fraud.

Weather effect?

Voters taking the traditional polling station route are asked to take their voting cards, although other types of identification may be allowed.

People who have been sent postal ballots can still vote by delivering them by hand to a local polling station or the address on their envelope.

Previous elections suggest weather may have an impact on turn-out.

Cloud and patchy rain is forecast across much of the country on Thursday, although it should be dry in southern England.

Temperatures should range between 13 and 17 degrees centigrade.

In 1992, turnout was 78% on a generally dry and sunny day. Turnout was 71% in 1997, when again it was dry, sunny and very warm.

In 2001, the weather was very cool, with a brisk wind and blustery showers across the UK.

[mykfin]

Blair survives, but gets a bloody nose in the process. The Labour party will probobly end up with around a 65 seat majority, thats half of what they had in 2001. The Iraq war was a main factor in many peoples change of vote and i can see him standing down in the next year or so.

Micheal Howard has already indicated that he will stand down, just as soon as the party get to pick a younger man.

The reduced majority should make for a better government, i hope.

[mykfin]

May 2005 12:22 BST+1

Swedish party leaders congratulate Blair
Swedish prime minister Göran Persson has congratulated Tony Blair for his party's victory in the British election.

"The British election result reflects support for politics which combine economic development with social rights," said Persson in a press release.

"The British people have given the Labour government the mandate to continue for a further four years the ambitious and progressive policies which began in 1997."

Labour's victory was far from resounding, with the government's majority in parliament appearing to have been reduced from 167 seats to just 66. Tony Blair acknowledged that Britain's role in the Iraq war has been divisive but said he hoped after the election that the country could "unite again and look to the future - there and here".

The Conservative Party, led by Michael Howard, failed to seize the initiative on the key election issues of the health service, crime and jobs. All the main parties steered clear of making the European Union an election battleground, but Göran Persson said that Labour's victory meant that Sweden kept an important partner on the European and international stages.

"The British government's involvement means a lot for the efforts to meet the great challenges of our time: to create a strong UN, to expand the EU with new members, to fight poverty in the world and to work against climate change," said Persson.

"Labour's victory strengthens the support for the politics of growth, justice, the environment and international solidarity."

But despite Blair's record third victory as a Labour leader, Sweden's papers were somewhat less effusive.

Svenska Dagbladet said that the leader had had his "wings clipped", while Aftonbladet cried, "Bye, bye, Tony Blair".

The paper had not misunderstood the BBC's election graphics; rather, it noted that Blair's victory was the beginning of the handover to Labour's Chancellor Gordon Brown. This would herald a return to "more traditional social democrat policies with more social reformism" - something which would not have been possible without Blair's lengthy leadership, said the tabloid.

Fredrik Reinfeldt, the leader of Sweden's main opposition party, the Moderates, said that Tony Blair had "written himself into the history books".

"He has turned a previously unelectable party into the natural party of government," he said. "Even if Labour has lost its massive majority in the House of Commons they have got renewed confidence from the voters."

"Blair has to live up to the promise to continue investing in work and business, just as in British welfare. I hope the [Labour government] has the strength to continue its path of reforms," he added.


Sources: Svenska Dagbladet, Aftonbladet

[homerandjethroswede]

yeah but waht do you think about blair? i say he sucks

[mykfin]

Originally posted by homerandjethroswede
yeah but waht do you think about blair? i say he sucks

Yeah! he may suck.......... but he`s in for another 5 years.

[PaulMc]

.... I still say he should be "First up against the Wall when the Revolution comes!"
"Hitch-hiker's Guide .... " [Douglas Adams]