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Polling stations opened this Thursday morning in the UK for early general elections. A poll convened by Boris Johnson, the British prime minister whose conservative party is given the lead polls. He hopes to obtain an absolute majority to achieve the Brexit by January 31st at the latest.
The polling stations have just opened. They are ready to welcome the 46 million Britons who are called to the polls. The Conservatives are at the head of polls, but the gap with the Labor has been reduced in recent days posing the risk of a new paralysis on the Brexit in case of victory of the opposition, reports our correspondent in London , Muriel Delcroix.
Voters not very enthusiastic
The two main Conservative and Labor parties promise each of the great diametrically different changes, if they win the ballot. If he is returned to Downing Street with a comfortable majority, Boris Johnson wants to get the country out of the EU as of 31 January without fail, and it makes the key to a recovery in the growth of the country.
His opponent of the Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn promises, he, a green industrial revolution and billions for public services including health suffer the consequences of years of austerity. He wants to renegotiate a Brexit agreement and submit it to a new referendum within six months.
Today, vote to save our NHS.
Vote for a pay rise.
Vote for free childcare.
Vote for lower fares and bills.
Vote for real change.
Vote for Labor.
According to a final poll, the Conservative Prime Minister is in the best position to win, but there is no guarantee that he will have the majority he dreams of in Parliament. Prudence remains in the face of the possibility of a tactical vote in dozens of constituencies disputed to deprive the Tories of a clear victory.
And many voters are undecided and disillusioned with leaders who beat each record of unpopularity. Boris Johnson is considered dishonest, unreliable, while Jeremy Corbyn's Marxist positions are scary. Therefore, voters will decide at the last moment and vote by default for the leader they hate the least.
The worst campaign in British history
The Conservatives promise to finally achieve the Brexit, three and a half years after the vote in favor of the exit of the European Union but the British are exasperated. They consider that the electoral campaign that ends tonight was the worst of their history, reports our special correspondent in London, Béatrice Leveillé.
" Really dreadful and dishonest I think it should be that conservative party members realize that Boris Johnson is supported by the far-right press. The center-right people in this country are in danger of regretting it, "said Angus, a Labor activist.
A negative campaign, full of lies in a conspiracy atmosphere fed by false information dumped on social networks and sometimes taken up by the press, despairs the Labor activist who tries to incite the British to go to vote.
And he has no trouble convincing Rita, a young woman who came to visit the Christmas market of Trafalgar Square in central London. She has no longer trusted the Conservatives in power for nearly ten years and is preparing to vote Labor. " The problem is that they never keep their promises so how could we believe them? If you lie in school you are punished, if you lie in court it is a crime but deputies lie all the time without any consequences, "said Rita.
To allow everyone to vote, the offices will remain open until 22h in London. The United Kingdom is divided into 650 constituencies and as many deputies. It's a one-round election. In each constituency, the seat is allocated to the person who obtains the greatest number of votes.
A poll taken out of the polls will be published at 22h. (It will be 23 hours in Paris). If the trend is clear, the leader of the majority will proclaim his victory without waiting for the official results. It takes 326 seats to have the absolute majority but 322 seats would be enough for Boris Johnson to claim victory.
If it fails, it will be a Hung Parliament, a suspended parliament. In this case, the pro-European parties, who are in favor of a new Brexit referendum, will try to form a government coalition and Boris Johnson will have to resign.
Scottish activists mobilize
The British Prime Minister hopes to obtain an absolute majority to achieve the Brexit by January 31 at the latest. This prospect is worrying in Scotland, which voted 62% in 2016 to stay in the European Union. The United Kingdom's protesters in the EU mobilized in the center of Edinburgh on Tuesday night, reports our correspondent in Edinburgh , Anastasia Becchio.
Their goal is to try to elect the candidates who voted against Brexit. On a main artery in Edinburgh, activists wave European flags and call out to passersby " Do not forget to go vote. Vote tactically, "says an activist.
" I'm trying to convince people to vote for candidates who want to stay in the EU, " says Stuart. It distributes leaflets with the names of the anti-Brexit candidates best placed to be elected in their constituency. " Here, the tactical vote is complicated by the issue of independence, " recognizes, Sam Page, activist of the movement "Edinburgh for Europe".
" In Scotland, we have unionists and supporters of independence , but we ask all these people to put aside this issue and focus on voting against Brexit. For example, if we have a Labor candidate or Lib Dem who is a Unionist and who is in a good position against the Conservative, we say: please vote for him, even if you are for independence, because we want to 'First stop the Brexit ,' says the activist.
In Edinburgh, most pro-European candidates best placed to be elected are members of the SNP, the Scottish nationalist party. A party for which Patricia Bailly Strong would never have thought to vote " The only reason is against Brexit, I am not for independence, but I am against Brexit ".
Whatever the outcome of the vote, Edinburgh's activists for Europe have planned to remain mobilized.