Britain votes to end Brexit deadlock

Britain's Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Boris Johnson holds his dog Dilyn after voting in the general election in London. Pic/AP

London: Polling in the United Kingdom's snap general election began on Thursday. The polls are crucial as they will decide whether and how the UK will finally exit the European Union after months of deadlock which has brought the European country to a standstill.

More than 45 million people are registered to vote. The winning candidate must have a majority in the 650-seat House of Commons in order to activate their plans. Boris Johnson, 55-year-old UK Prime Minister, has promised that a right-wing Conservative government would "get Brexit done" and take the UK out of the EU by the end of January 2020. He also warned of more "dither and delay" in the event of a Labour victory.

Leader of the left-wing Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, 70, has said he would broker a softer divorce deal than Johnson's. The MRP poll, a major YouGov study released on Tuesday, has predicted that no party will win an outright majority. It showed the conservative party will win 339 seats overall a slender majority of 28 seats - down from the sizeable 68 majority forecast by YouGov two weeks ago.

It also forecast that the Labour party was set to win 231 seats, the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) 41 seats and the pro-EU Liberal Democrats 15 seats. Despite the dreary, cold and wet weather, long queues were reported outside many polling stations, as initial turnout appeared to be brisk after a closely fought campaign billed by the Conservatives and the Labour as the "most important in a generation". The results from most of the constituencies are expected to be declared by the early hours of Friday, by which time the final tally becomes clear.

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