The first results are expected to be announced from midnight vineri, 6 mai 2011
Voters punish Lib Dems at polls
The first results are expected to be announced from midnight Counting has begun after polls closed in elections for 279 English councils and elections to the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.
The English polls are the biggest test yet for the coalition, with results due in from midnight. Labour hope to make gains from the Tories and Lib Dems.
Counting in the Northern Irish Assembly election begins on Friday morning.
The outcome of the UK-wide referendum on the Westminster voting system is due on Friday evening.
In the most significant test of public opinion since last year's general election, parties face the voters' verdict across the UK.
In Scotland, the SNP is hoping to keep power at Holyrood, where it runs a minority administration.Labour is looking to win overall control of the Welsh Assembly, where it currently rules in coalition with Plaid Cymru, but party sources say it may fall short of a majorityThe DUP and Sinn Fein are expected to remain the biggest parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly.In what has been dubbed "super Thursday", a parliamentary by-election also took place in Leicester South, following the decision by Labour MP Sir Peter Soulsby to stand down to run for mayor of the city.
More mayoral contests are being held in Mansfield, Middlesbrough, Torbay and Bedford while local authority elections also took place in Northern Ireland.
Almost a year since the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition was formed, the contests taking place in England are the first chance for most voters to deliver a verdict on its performance.
Sunderland is expected to be the first council to declare at about midnight, with significant results expected from Birmingham at 0130 and Lib Dem held Bristol at 0200.
WHEN RESULTS ARE DUE
2200: Polls close
2330: Early results expected from some English councils
0130-0230: Key council results expected in Birmingham, Bristol, Hull and Sheffield
0230: First Scottish and Welsh constituency results expected
0300: Results due from Liverpool, Manchester and Stockport councils
0600: First results from Scottish and Welsh regional list elections
0730: Counting begins in Leicester South parliamentary by-election
0800: Counting begins in Northern Ireland Assembly elections
1600: Counting begins in AV referendum
LIVE: Election 2011 Vote 2011: How events will unfoldLabour, which ran an anti-spending cuts campaign, will be hoping to make gains on many English councils at the expense of the other two main parties.
It is looking to take control of several large authorities, including Leeds, Bolton, Ipswich and Sheffield.
The council seats up for grabs were last contested in 2007, when Labour lost 642 councillors in one of the party's worst ever performances.
Support for the Lib Dems is expected to fall, although the party also had a bad time in 2007, with a net loss of 257 councillors, meaning it too is starting from a low base.
The Conservatives, the big winners four years ago, are predicted to lose some of their 9,432 councillors.
Smaller parties are looking to make headway. The Greens are hoping to take control, either on their own or in alliance with other parties, in Brighton and Hove and Norwich while the UK Independence Party is looking to increase its representation.
The result of a UK-wide referendum on whether to end the first-past-the-post system for Westminster elections and replace it with the alternative vote (AV) system will not be known until Friday evening - with counting set to begin at 1600 BST.
Polls suggested AV - under which voters rank candidates in order of preference - will be rejected by a sizeable margin, but turnout levels at polling stations are predicted to have been fairly low, making the result more unpredictable.
The Conservatives oppose changing the electoral system, while the Lib Dems are in favour of AV. This has led to some bitter rows between senior coalition colleagues over the past few weeks.
Former Lib Dem leader Lord Ashdown has accused Prime Minister David Cameron of a "breach of trust" for not disassociating himself from what he said were "vicious" attacks by the No to AV campaign on Deputy PM Nick Clegg.
He told the Guardian that Mr Cameron had "panicked" in the face of pressure from the right of his party and "backtracked" on promises about how the campaign would be conducted.
The BBC's political editor Nick Robinson said anger over the issue was rife among the Lib Dems. Although the party was committed to the coalition, he added that if the polls went badly, they would face demands to assert themselves more on key policies.
This article is from the BBC News website. � British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/int/news/-/news/uk-politics-13297573
Abonați-vă la:
Postare comentarii (Atom)
Niciun comentariu:
Trimiteți un comentariu