It has been called the most significant election in a generation, and the certain increase in voter turnout bears testimony to public awareness of that fact.
According to a poll taken by the leading pollster Ipsos MORI published on Thursday, a voter turnout of 72 and 74 per cent is likely, well above the 65.1 per cent voter turnout in the 2010 elections.
At 11 a.m. on election day in the constituency of Southall Ealing a steady stream of people – South Asian and Black voters mainly – walk in to the polling booth in Hambrough Primary School on a busy commercial street.
Here, Virendra Sharma, the Labour Party candidate is standing for the third time, and from all accounts will win again.
Mr. Sharma, who started his life as a bus conductor and went on to a long innings in local and national politics, says there is definitely greater voter enthusiasm in these elections, for reasons both local and national. The 65,000 registered voters in his constituency are mainly immigrants, who support Labour’s pro-poor agenda, and “have also responded to the work I have done,” Mr. Sharma says as he greets his constituents outside the polling booth.
In the affluent central London constituency of Kensington and Chelsea, where polling is sedate and party preferences concealed, it is clear that national policy issues are driving voters. “I fear the mansion tax, the depletion of our capital to Scotland to underwrite their welfare system, and the slow down of deficit payments,” said a woman (who declined to give her name) outside the polling booth in Heythorpe College overlooking the leafy Kensington Square. “The last thing we want is a Labour government,” said a man who gave his name as Simon. “The second-half of the 15 years of the last Labour government was a disaster. Miliband is anti-aspirational,” he said.
The first result will come in from the constituency of Houghton and Sunderland South at 11 p.m. — soon after the exit poll results are announced at 10 p.m.
“The higher voter-turnout in these elections show that in a coalition situation, people want to have their voices heard,” Alia Middleton, from the University of Newcastle told The Hindu . “The SNP membership has exploded after the referendum and it will push up the voter turnout,” she said.
