Extremely tight election expected amid financial woes
Half of the electorate is undecided and the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties are nearly even in the polls as Britons prepare to vote Thursday. “There is quite a lot of disillusionment,” said Andy Grant, a council worker and undecided voter. “The banks stitched things up and then the politicians put their hands in the till,” he said referring to the recent recession and the British MP’s expense scandal. No one can predict who will lead the next parliament, but most experts agree that the victor will reign over a minority government, although Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour party may opt to form a coalition government with the Liberal-Democrats, whose leader Nick Clegg has risen to rock-stardom thanks to his performance on the country’s first-ever televised debates. The running is so tight that some Labour ministers were asking their supporters to vote for the Liberal Democrats to prevent a Conservative win, but Brown says he doesn’t want people to vote strategically. “People will judge us on the number of votes we have as well as the number of seats,” he said.