London, April 7 (Inditop.com) With opinion polls throwing up no clear winner among the three top political parties and hinting at a possibly hung parliament, 45 million voters in Britain get ready to elect the next government May 6.
Ahead of the voters queuing up at polling booths, all the three major political parties – Labour, Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats – have a Herculean task to swing the peoples’ trust in their favour.
The 2010 general elections will decide the fate of the 650 parliamentary seats, up four from 2005 under the proposals made by the Boundary Commissions for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour Party will be looking to re-inforce a fourth consecutive term in Westminster.
In 2005, the Labour Party had won with 35.3 percent of the votes. Though the Conservatives were just a few points behind with 32.3 percent of the votes, the Labour Party had a significant majority with 356 seats compared to 198 seats for the Conservative Party.
Brown has already sought Queen Elizabeth’s assent to dissolve the Parliament, with effect from Monday next.
Earlier this week, standing outside 10 Downing Street along with his cabinet colleagues, Brown appealed to the British voters to bring the Labour back to power, claiming Britain is on the road to economic recovery.
“We will fight for fairness. The future is in our grasp, let’s go get it,” Brown told reporters.
Political polls point to a Conservative win in the 2010 general elections but speculation also dwells on a possibly hung parliament, which is rare in British politics.
However, in 1974 Britain had a hung parliament with the Labour winning 301 and the Conservatives 297 seats.
The latest Guardian/ICM poll which came out Monday revealed that the Labour still had a fighting chance of obtaining majority.
The YouGov/Sun poll Monday night put support for the Tories above 40 percent for the first time since Jan 7.
The Liberal Democrats, the third largest political party, has high hopes of forming a government should the general election throw up a hung parliament. The Liberal Democrats will benefit maximum from a hung parliament as they can form a coalition government with either the Labour or the Conservatives.
For the first time ever the leaders of all the three political parties will be appearing in live television debates similar to what is seen in the US elections, even though Brown initially was not keen on such a move.
The first debate will be on domestic affairs on ITV April 15.
Sky TV will be hosting the second TV debate on foreign affairs April 22, and the last debate April 29 on BBC will have the focus on economy.
With the results expected soon after polling on May 6, the next four weeks are going to be crucial for the politicians as they hit the campaign trail.
There is an element of dissatisfaction among the voters, especially after the Westminster ‘expenses scandal’ broke out when some MPs were found to have passed on their personal expenses to the parliament account.
Allison Edwards, a housewife from Shropshire, told IANS: “It’s a shame on what has happened on the expenses scandal. I want the political parties to spend money on the most vulnerable sections.”
Abdul Najeeb, an IT businessman, anticipates the incumbent Labour to continue.
“I believe that the Conservatives are unpopular among the immigrants as they are trying to bring more stringent rules if they come to power. The policies of the Labour Party have been beneficial,” said the 43-year-old from Croydon.
