UK parliamentary election to be a close call

Global Business

An official attaches a sign to a fence outside a polling station set up at the Cafe on the Promenade at Roath Park in Cardiff, south Wales on May 7, 2015, as Britain holds a general election. (Photo by AFP)

Voters were choosing a new parliament for the United Kingdom on Thursday in an election that is expected to produce an ambiguous result and lead to a period of frantic political horse-trading.

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.

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

If no party wins outright, it may take days or weeks of negotiation to forge a workable government.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. (0600 GMT) until 10 p.m. (2100 GMT). Most results will be announced within hours.

Source: AP/em>


EU in or out referendum looms amid uncertainty

Nowhere will this election be more keenly watched than the corridors of the European Union. One of the leading parties, the Conservatives, has promised a referendum in the next two years on either staying or leaving the EU – should it be in power. And that possibility of breaking up with its neighbors has in some ways defined this election. CCTV’s Jack Barton filed this report from London.


Party leaders awaiting election results

With the polls closed in the UK’s General Election, the party leaders can do nothing now but wait for the votes to be counted. Up to the last minute, opinion polls have suggested that neither of the two main political parties is likely to get an overall parliamentary majority. CCTV’s Richard Bestic filed this report from London.


Investment Adviser Patrick Young on Britain’s single currency reservation

For more on Britain’s election, CCTV America’s Phillip Yin spoke to economist and investment adviser Patrick Young, who’s in Poland. Like the UK, Poland has deep reservations about joining the single currency – the Euro.
Follow Phillip Yin on Twitter @PhillipTKYin


Anthony Pereira fom Kings College London on UK General Election

For the perspective on the UK General Election, CCTV America’s Mike Walter interviewed Anthony Pereira, a professor at Kings College London.