Election day has arrived in the UK. UK voters go to the polls on Thursday 8 June to vote for the 650-member House of Commons, one of the two houses (the other is the House of Lords) that make up the UK Parliament. Today's vote will be a fundamental one for the whole Kingdom. In fact, the result of these elections will determine which parliamentary majority will guide the exit of Great Britain and Northern Ireland from the European Union one year after the Brexit refrendum.
UK ELECTIONS: WHEN YOU VOTE
The British elections are single-round elections, which means that voting takes place only on 8 June. The polls will remain open until 23 pm Italian time (22 pm in the UK) barring any queues at the polling stations that could postpone the closing. In any case, all polls will have to start the counting of votes within 2 nights. The first results will therefore arrive during the night.
UK ELECTIONS: THE VOTING SYSTEM
The UK electoral system is known as “first past the post”. The mechanism provides that access to the House of Commons is the candidate who obtains the most votes in each constituency. All the other votes (from the second onwards therefore) count for nothing. On balance therefore, a party with a broad consensus risks remaining outside Parliament even if it obtains a good number of votes at national level, while another party rooted in certain areas has a better chance of gaining access to the House of Commons.
It should be emphasized that, the Prime Minister is not directly elected by the voters, but is appointed by the sovereign on the basis of the absolute majority of seats won after the elections.
UK ELECTIONS: WHY YOU VOTE
The current Prime Minister Theresa May, number one in the Conservative party, decided to call early elections last April, in order to win a more stable majority capable of managing the Brexit negotiations in the best possible way.
The problem is that compared to two months ago, when the polls gave the Tories a 20-point lead over their rivals, now things seem to have changed and Jeremy Corbyn's Labor Party has recovered ground, making the outcome of the vote uncertain.
UK ELECTIONS: THE CANDIDATES
Based on the absolute majority resulting from these elections, the favorite for the premiership, despite a weak electoral campaign and the ground lost following the controversy over the attacks, is still the current tenant of Downing Street, Theresa May. Former “Home Secretary” of the government led by David Cameron, he took over from the latter after the Brexit referendum.
To try to put a spoke in the wheels there will be Jeremy Corbyn, number one of the Labor Party since 2015, re-elected again in 2016 after being disheartened by Labor MPs who accused him of not having done enough to support Remain.
The other contenders for the Downing Street seat are: Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats), Nicholas Sturgeon, (Scottish National Party, current First Minister of Scotland).
UK ELECTIONS: THE LATEST POLLS
As mentioned above, according to the latest surveys, the Labor party would close the gap with the Conservatives to 7 percentage points (44% against 37%). Up until a month ago, the gap between the first two parties in the Kingdom exceeded 20 points. For this reason, according to some commentators, also taking into account the voting system used in London, a coup de main cannot be ruled out. Not only that, even in the event of victory, May could lose a few seats compared to those currently held, missing the objective underlying these elections.
As for the other parties, according to the main surveys, the Liberal Democrats settle at around 7%, while the SNP would reach 4,5%. Despite you, thanks to the "First past the post", Nicola Sturgeon's party, rooted in Scotland, could obtain around 40 seats.
