Polling begins for Britain’s general elections

TIL Desk/World/London/ Polling begins for Britain’s general elections. Polls opened at 7 am across 40,000 polling stations in Britain with counting starting once voting ends at 10 pm (UK time). A total of 650 MPs will be elected, with about 46.9 million people registered to vote.

That is up from the last general election, in 2015, when there were 46.4 million registered voters. Some votes have already been cast, through postal voting, which accounted for 16.4% of the total electorate at the 2015 general election.

Overall turnout in 2015, when the Conservatives won 331 out of 650 seats, was 66.4%, up from 2010. Most polling stations are in schools, community centres and parish halls, but pubs, a launderette and a school bus have been used in the past. A handful of seats are expected to be declared by midnight, with the final results expected on Friday afternoon.