FRACTURED VERDICT FEARED AS UK VOTES
UNCERTAIN On big day, UKIP leader draws inspiration from Mahatma; market jittery
Nuns leave a polling booth in London after voting in UK’s tightest election in decades in which neither PM David Cameron’s Conservatives nor Ed Miliband’s Labour Party is likely to win a majority. Voting was off to a slow start as pubs, funeral homes and buses doubled up as polling stations.
LONDON: For a man accused of leading a party of “closet racists”, UK Independence Party (UKIP) leader Nigel Farage raised many eyebrows by quoting Mahatma Gandhi in his support as Britain went to tightly contested polls on what has been called Judgment Day.
Over 45 million voters were eligible to vote in more than 40,000 polling stations across the United Kingdom — some located in pubs, barns, religious places and schools. Fears of post-poll uncertainty were evident on the London Stock Exchange and the currency market.
Leaders of the three parties — David Cameron, Nick Clegg and Ed Miliband — were among the first to vote when polling began in the morning. Polling was intermittent most of the day, but as during earlier elections, it was expected to pick up later after office-hours, until 10pm GMT.
Farage leads one of three smaller parties called “insurgents” due to their rapid rise in British politics during the last year and a half. UKIP has aligned itself with the Conservatives on the issue of Britain’s membership of the European Union.
Drawing inspiration from Gandhi while flaying his critics during a rally in Broadstairs, Kent, Farage used one of the former’s famous quotes, “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, and then you win.”
Farage went on to recall another of Gandhi’s quotes, and said, “Whatever they (critics) say about us, we must turn the other cheek and not descend to their level, and that’s what we have done”. A can- didate in Thanet South, Farage said Thursday was “the biggest day in my political career”, and repeated his opposition to the EU.
On the currency market, a key measure of sterling volatility reached a five-year high over concerns that the poll will not deliver a clear winner, market reports said.
One-week volatility of the pound against the dollar, which measures investor concern over the future trajectory of sterling, leapt to 18.3 per cent, its highest for five years, surpassing the level it reached in the run-up to the Scottish referendum or the Eurozone crisis.
After an exit poll shortly after polling ends at 10pm GMT, results were expected to be announced from 11pm GMT onwards, with the overall party position likely to be clear by 8am GMT (12.30 pm IST) on Friday.
BBC and other broadcasters had made elaborate arrangements for night-long events related to the results, including the prominent television inquisitor Jeremy Paxman fronting an ‘Alternative Election Night’ on Channel 4.