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Polls are now closed in the United Kingdom, and the UK Guardian published an exit poll indicating that no party won a majority. So, there could be what is called a “hung parliament”–a House of Commons where no one party holds a majority of seats. In many parliamentary systems, this is not an unusual occurrence and results in a coalition government, but in two-party-dominated Britain, this could turn out to be a watershed event.
The Conservatives are projected to win a plurality, but not a majority of seats. As per the exit poll:
Conservatives: 307 seats
Labour: 255 seats
Liberal Democrats: 59 seats
Others: 29 seats
If there is a hung parliament, it would require forming a coalition government, likely one of the major parties–Labour or the Tories (Conservatives)–joining with the Liberal Democrats. It is more likely that it would be Labour. This would give the Liberal Democrats serious leverage to make demands, possibly getting some of their long-desired electoral reforms–a move away from the single-member districts and the “first past the post” system that favors two major parties–offered for a vote in Parliament.
You can follow the UK election results at the Guardian and at the BBC.
Follow a live stream of results here.
4 Comments
results are coming in slowly but it looks like the Tories might just barely not get a true majority of seats.
Well, let’s hope not. By which I mean, let’s hope they get nowhere near one.
I’m enjoying the BBC coverage immensely: the pundits get interviewed in a pub. Bill Wyman and Martin Amis were there. Charles Moore, editor of the Daily Telegraph, was just taken to task for refusing to pay his BBC license fee: he reported that he’s going to be up in front of the magistrate’s bench for this offence next week.
I like the fact the voters were smart. That means they will actually have to work together for the greater good of the pople-novel idea -eh?