British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced there will be a general election in the UK on June 8. Her decision to hold a snap election comes after she repeatedly claimed she was initially against the idea. She said that her change of mind is because opposition parties, and unelected peers in the House of Lords, were jeopardising her government’s preparations for Brexit.
The Prime Minister said, “We need a general election, and we need one now.” She added, “I have only recently and reluctantly come to this conclusion. But now, I have concluded, it is the only way to guarantee certainty for the years ahead.”
Today we are going to talk about the UK General Election. Voters will go to the polls on Thursday 7th May 2015. On the same day local elections will also take place in many, but not all parts, of the UK.
There are 650 parliamentary seats up for grabs. Each seat is created from 650 constituencies. These are spread right across the UK. Their size varies, as each constituency is based on a certain number of people. Thus in London there are many MPs while in Scotland the areas for each MP in the countryside is huge, due to people not living near each other.
Slovakia - A coalition of four centre-right opposition parties has won enough seats to unseat Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s coalition government. With most of the votes now counted opposition supporters across the country were partying the night away knowing the results will bring about a change of government in the small Central European country.
Mr Fico’s leftist Smer-SD party beat each of the opposition parties in the countries parliamentary elections - capturing 34.79% of the vote, enough to gain 62 seats in the 150-seat parliament. But the four centre-right opposition parties picked up 79 seats. Smer-SD actually increased its share of the vote. It will have the largest number of seats in parliament by far, but will fall short of an overall majority. Mr Fico has said he was willing to try to form a government or to lead the opposition TASR reported.
Slovak President Ivan Gašparovic has said he will ask the winner of the general election Smer-SD to form the next government. He said it is the moral thing to do. Opposition parties have however united against forming any form of coalition with Fico. SDKU-DS opposition leader Iveta Radicova: “I am ready to be the first female Slovak Prime Minister.”
Category: Central Europe / Slovakia / General Election 2010
