International Desk: Parliamentary elections are going to be held in the United Kingdom on Thursday (July 4). Various polls predict that the opposition Labor Party may come to power again after 14 years through this election. However, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak of the ruling Conservative Party is not willing to pay attention to the results of the survey. He said that he was optimistic about the victory.
Elections are being held in the UK earlier than expected. The term of the elected government in the UK is five years. The Conservative Party won last time, i.e., the 2019 election. The next general election was scheduled to be held in January 2025. But Prime Minister Rishi Sunak suddenly announced early elections on May 22.
After almost one and a half months of the election campaign, the polling will be held continuously from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. today in the United Kingdom. At least 98 political parties, including the Conservative Party, Labor Party, Liberal Democratic Party, Green Party, and Reform Party, are participating in this election. A record number of 4,515 candidates are contesting against the 650 seats in the House of Commons, including nominees of political parties and independent candidates.
34 British citizens of Bangladeshi origin, including 9 women, are contesting the UK general election, of which a maximum of eight are contesting as a single party from the opposition Labor Party. All the candidates nominated by the Labor Party, including incumbent MPs Rushnara Ali, Rupa Haque, Tulip Siddique, and Apsana Begum, are likely to win. If the Labor Party forms the government, for the first time, some British MPO of Bangladeshi origin may get a place in the cabinet.
The Conservative Party has been in power for three consecutive terms since 2010. This time, the condition of the party is shaky. And a confident Labor Party, buoyed by a landslide victory in May’s local government elections, is optimistic about winning the national election.
Along with the Labor Party’s call for change, the election opinion polls indicate that the people want change as well. According to the results of the latest survey, the Labor Party is in first place with 40 points. The current ruling Conservative Party is in second place with 21 points. Although the Liberal Democratic Party did well in the local government elections, Reform UK came in third with 16 points in the election poll. Labor could win 484 of the 650 seats, far more than former leader Tony Blair’s 1997 landslide victory of 418, according to Survation’s polling analysis. And the ruling Conservative Party can get 64 seats. After the establishment of the party in 1834, they can win the least number of seats this time.
The two parties currently expected to garner the most votes are the ruling Conservative Party and the opposition Labor Party. 44-year-old Rishi Sunak is leading the Conservative Party. He was 42 when he became Prime Minister in 2022. He is the youngest Prime Minister of Britain in modern times. Not only that, he held the post of Prime Minister for the first time. On the other hand, the Labor Party is led by Sir Kier Starmer. He is 61 years old. He was elected to lead the party after Jeremy Corbyn in 2020.
In the election, the main parties made various promises in the election manifesto to draw public opinion towards them, solve the ongoing problems, and build a united United Kingdom. Conservative Party chief Rishi Sunak and Labor chief Starmer campaigned yesterday on the last day of election campaigning. They talk about the economic affairs of the country. Both claim that if their opponent wins, the economy will be adversely affected.
