The United Kingdom’s general elections on Thursday stand to determine the fate of the country, the region and global politics for years to come. Conservatives know that anything less than a majority will be a death blow for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s proposed deal for Brexit. The party had a slim lead over its opponents in polls right before the election, but as previous occasions have shown, opinion polls do not always end up being accurate. Conservatives might just get their slim majority, or even a big win depending on which experts one consults. Out of a total 650 MP seats, Johnson’s party needs at least 321 seats to follow through on its plan to leave the European Union with the deal he has set up.
Another likely possibility at this stage, with politics in the UK painting an uncertain picture, is that there is a hung parliament, with no party winning a clear majority. In that case the only option left to PM Johnson would be forming a minority government with other parties in a coalition. But considering that the Conservatives and the Prime Minister do not have many friends left in opposition parties, this might prove to extremely challenging, if not impossible.
Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, narrowly trailing the Conservatives in the polls, will get an opportunity to form government if PM Johnson is unable to do so in a hung parliament. The Labour Party might also have an outsider’s chance to winning a majority in any case. The Labour Party is the only serious contender to beat the Conservatives in any case. A win for Corbyn means that a reversal of Brexit may soon follow. Labour is also at odds with many of the policies of the current government, from immigration, to economics and even environmental policy, which mean that the UK is likely to pursue a completely different course if the Labour Party emerges victorious.
Results are expected Friday morning, it is up to the citizens of the UK to decide which direction they want their country to head in, after some of the mess associated with Brexit has begun to reveal itself.