In the UK, voting is not only in Scotland

Today, Thursday 6 May, the majority of Britons vote to elect regional parliaments (in Scotland and Wales), mayors (such as London) and thousands of local administrators. In other words, the largest elections are held after the election of the British Parliament, and for this reason newspapers refer to it as “Super Thursday”, an expression used in American politics to denote that day. for which to vote in several states simultaneously during the primaries of Democrats and Republicans (in that case it falls on Tuesday, not Thursday, and is called “Super Tuesday”).

Today the most important, awaited and commented election is undoubtedly the one to renew the Parliament in Scotland. They are not so relevant to the uncertainty of who will win – polls show current pro-European and centre-left Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) as a big favourite – but rather to the uncertainty. What will be the difference. between the first and second party. Should the SNP win a major, Sturgeon’s government will almost certainly ask Britain’s central government, led by Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to hold a new referendum on Scottish independence, which failed in 2014. .

– Also read: Will Thursday’s election bring Scotland closer to independence?

In recent times the SNP has suffered a significant decline in consensus due to a complex political scam Dating back to 2018, but which we started talking about again between last February and March; According to polls, it was mainly the Labor Party and the Scottish section of the Greens who took advantage.

But, as mentioned, voting is not only in Scotland.

elections in wales
Also in Wales, as in Scotland, there is a vote to renew the local parliament, the “Senead”, which is made up of 60 members. Currently Welsh Labour, which has 29 seats in parliament, governs with a minimum majority thanks to a smaller party and two more seats guaranteed by an independent member of parliament. The government is led by Labor Prime Minister Mark Drakeford.

The two largest opposition parties are the Conservative Party, which has 10 seats in parliament, and the Wales-friendly Plaid Cymru party, which has another 10 seats.

The polls give Labor an advantage, also thanks to Drakeford’s handling of the pandemic which is generally welcomed. However, many seats are in limbo and it is not certain that the ruling party will be able to rule without looking for complicated alliances.

mayor of london
London is also among the 13 mayors to be elected today, with the British capital’s current Labor mayor Sadiq Khan among the candidates.

Although the national consensus of conservatives has grown in recent months, thanks above all to the successes of the vaccination campaign launched by Johnson, Khan is firmly ahead (48%): if he does not exceed 50 percent of the vote. In the first round, however, he would be forced to go to the ballot. His main rival is conservative Sean Bailey who currently stands at around 29 percent. A total of 20 candidates introduced themselves.

elections in england
In England, 143 local governments are voted on: they have jurisdiction over small areas of territory and have responsibility, among other things, for education, transport, the environment, property taxes and other specific matters for smaller areas. In total, approximately 5,000 deputies will be elected to the local councils.

Hartlepool election
Today we also vote in the town of Hartlepool of about 90,000 residents in the North East of England. These are elections that have national significance: they elect a member of the UK Parliament and are comparable to our “by-elections” (held to elect a representative to a seat that has been vacant for some reason).

Hartlepool could turn out to be an unexpected victory for Boris Johnson and the Conservatives, an advantage despite the fact that the seat has belonged to Labor since 1974. In general, it is quite unusual for a party to win a seat against the party. It has already captured this kind of election. But the conservative consensus in Hartlepool can be explained by the fact that Brexit, especially popular with conservatives, was supported here in 2016 with 70 percent of the vote.