London (BLAZETRENDS).- The polling stations have opened this Thursday at 06.00 GMT for partial municipal elections in England, which will serve to measure the popularity of the ruling Conservative Party led by Rishi Sunak.
The polling stations will be operational until 9:00 p.m. GMT, after which the counting of votes will begin in the consistories in contention, with the forecast that it will end around noon on Friday.
230 of the 317 councils or local authorities in England are contested in these elections, equivalent to 8,058 councilor posts, of which 3,367 are in the hands of the “Tories”, who are expected to back down.
In another election in 2022, English consistories such as London were already awarded, as well as all those of Scotland and Wales. The municipal ones in Northern Ireland will be held on May 18.
First test for Sunak conservatives
This is the first notable electoral test for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak since he took office on October 25, after 13 years of Conservative rule and a time of scandals under his colleagues Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
Although the results of the municipal elections cannot be directly extrapolated to a general election, they may be indicative of the voting trend for the 2024 legislative elections.
The polls for these local elections give Labor an advantage of 13 points -who start with 2,143 councillors-. They will also serve to gauge the progress of the first formation of the opposition under the leadership of Keir Starmer.
New to these elections is that for the first time in the UK voters are required to prove their identity officially, which, in the absence of a national ID, can be done with a driving licence, passport or card issued by the Electoral Commission.
Experts warn that this can keep certain segments of the population, especially young people and ethnic minorities, away from the polls, which could benefit conservatives.