UK votes as Tories, Labour in dead heat
UK Votes As Tories, Labour In Dead Heat. 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.
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.
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London: 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 0700 (local time) at around 50,000 polling stations across the UK, which will remain open until 2200 (local time).
A total of 650 MPs will be elected for the main Westminster elections by about 50 million registered voters - who will also be voting for around 10,000 council seats being contested across 290 English local authorities.
The last elections in 2010 had set a new record with eight Indian-origin candidates, including two women, being elected to the British Parliament.
Prominent among the Indian-origin candidates are some long-serving MPs like Labour's Keith Vaz, whose Leicester East seat looks pretty safe this time as well. His sister Valerie Vaz is defending her Walsall South seat.
Virendra Sharma is another Labour veteran who is expected to sail through in Ealing Southall and Seema Malhotra from Feltham and Heston is also popular.
On the Tory side there is a new brother-sister duo of Arun and Suria Photay who are contesting from Birmingham Yardley and Wolverhampton South East respectively. Priti Patel, who has played her part in the Cabinet and as Cameron's Indian Diaspora Champion, is likely to retain her Witham seat in Essex and first-timer Rishi Sunak, son-in-law of Infosys co-founder Narayan Murthy, is expected to make history from Richmond.
The Conservatives are leading the charge in terms of Indian-origin candidates with 17, followed by Labour and Liberal Democrats at 14 each. Some votes have been cast before polling day through postal voting, which accounted for 15 per cent of the total electorate at the 2010 general election, when the overall turnout was 65.1 per cent.
For the first time, people have been able to register to vote online. Electoral rules in the UK prevent any party insignia being displayed near the polling booth on the day of polling but as a compromise candidates are allowed to wear a party rosette. With the proliferation of phone cameras and social media in recent times, there is an additional restriction on taking selfies as well as using Twitter or other forms of social networking inside the booths.
Overcrowding famously hit polling stations in 2010 and this time authorities claim to be better-prepared, setting up mobile centres to deal with the extra capacity.
