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The future of Rishi Sunak as Britain’s first Prime Minister of Indian origin and the leader of the Conservative Party – fighting anti-incumbency of 14 years – hangs in the balance as millions cast their ballots in a historic general election on Thursday.
The British Indian leader and the man who wants his job – Labour leader Keir Starmer were among the early voters from an estimated 46 million registered voters as around 40,000 polling booths opened across the country at 7 am local time.
Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty walked hand-in-hand to their local polling booth on a sunny day in his constituency of Richmond and Northallerton in Yorkshire, northern England.
The UK is voting in a landmark general election , with an estimated 46 million registered voters set to make their ballot count at 40,000 polling stations across the country where any discussion or analysis of political issues remains silenced on the polling day.
On polling day, the UK’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) media watchdog rules mean all political and policy debates should be wrapped up before 7 am local time when the polling booths open. From then on, any discussion or analysis of political issues is silenced until 10 pm local time, when the customary election night exit poll results are beamed around the world.
“Discussion and analysis of election and referendum issues must finish when the poll opens,” reads the Ofcom guidelines under Section 6 of its code.
