LONDON: UK polling stations opened Thursday in local elections set to heap more pressure on beleaguered Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showcase the rise of hard-right and left-wing populists. Polls opened at 7:00 am (0600 GMT) across Scotland, England, and Wales in the ballot that is Starmer&#39;s biggest electoral test since his July 2024 general election landslide victory ended 14 years of Conservative rule. Opinion polls predict grim results for Labour, which could amplify calls for Starmer, 63, to resign or face a long-rumoured party leadership challenge. The prime minister and his wife voted at a polling station near parliament in Westminster. Nigel Farage&#39;s anti-immigrant Reform UK and the left-wing Greens, led by self-described eco-populist Zack Polanski, are expected to be the main beneficiaries of widespread disillusionment. Melanie Garson, associate professor of politics at University College London, said the vote was a &quot;huge barometer for how the country is feeling about this political establishment&quot;. &quot;We&#39;ve got, for the first time, significant pressure on the main political parties across every single council.&quot; Polls will close at 10:00 pm. Some results are expected overnight, but most will not come until later on Friday. Around 5,000 local council seats, out of 16,000, are up for grabs across England, while in Wales and Scotland, voters will elect new devolved parliaments. Starmer swept to power following 14 years of largely chaotic Conservative rule defined by austerity, Brexit, and the tanking of the economy under former prime minister Liz Truss. But critics say he has swerved from one policy misstep to another, and he has been embroiled in a scandal over Peter Mandelson, who was sacked as ambassador to Washington over his links to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Starmer has also failed to fulfil his main promise of spurring economic growth, with impatient Britons still suffering a cost-of-living crisis, including from high energy prices. &quot;The change hasn&#39;t been delivered, or the change that has been delivered has been negative,&quot; Garson told AFP. Leadership challenge?Starmer said on Wednesday there was a &quot;clear choice&quot; at the ballot box. &quot;Unity or division. Progress versus the politics of anger.&quot; Labour has also fought back, unearthing racist remarks by some Reform candidates and antisemitic comments by certain Green hopefuls. But Starmer is now one of the most unpopular prime ministers ever, and surveys suggest Labour will lose control of the devolved Welsh government in Cardiff for the first time since Wales got its own parliament 27 years ago. A More in Common poll published Tuesday projected Reform is neck-and-neck with the pro-independence Plaid Cymru in Labour&#39;s former heartland. Labour is also fearful of a drubbing in Scotland, where the Scottish National Party is expected to extend its 19-year control of the devolved parliament in Edinburgh. YouGov has predicted that Reform could force Labour into third place there. &quot;The message is clear: if you want real change, you&#39;d better vote for it, and we go into tomorrow feeling pretty optimistic about our prospects,&quot; Farage said. Labour also looks set for big losses in London as the Greens pick up disaffected left-wingers in urban areas with a pro-Gaza message. Pollster Robert Hayward has predicted the UK&#39;s ruling party could lose about 1,850 of the roughly 2,550 local authority seats it is defending. Hayward has tipped Reform to take 1,550 seats from Labour and Kemi Badenoch&#39;s right-wing Conservatives -- mostly in white, working-class areas. The Conservatives are also bracing for the loss of traditional strongholds. &quot;The two-party era has moved into a multi-party era,&quot; Badenoch told PA news agency. &quot;But the fact is none of these new parties or Labour have a plan for the country.&quot; Britain&#39;s media is full of rumors that ex-deputy prime minister Angela Rayner or Health Secretary Wes Streeting could try to oust Starmer after the results. Neither is universally popular within Labour, however, and would need the backing of 20% of the party&#39;s MPs to launch a contest. Some Labour lawmakers are reportedly planning to demand that Starmer set a date for his departure. He has insisted he will lead the party into the next general election, likely in 2029.

A polling clerk hangs up a sign reminding people to show ID as they turn up to vote in local elections at a mobile polling station in Walton-on-the-Naze, eastern England on May 7, 2026. (AFP)

United Kingdom

UK polling stations opened Thursday in local elections set to heap more pressure on beleaguered Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer and showcase the rise of hard-right and left-wing populists.

Britons set to punish Starmer's Labour in local polls

Web Desk

ISLAMABAD: Bangladesh&#39;s Election Commission said on Friday that all preparations for the country&#39;s general elections and referendum scheduled for Feb. 12 have been completed, with the largest security deployment in the nation&#39;s history in place. &quot;Now there is no preparation left except for the voters to go to the polling stations and exercise their right to vote,&quot; Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker told the state-run Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS) news agency in an interview. Sarker said ballot papers have reached 116 constituencies, with the remaining to be delivered by Friday. EC Secretariat Senior Secretary Akhtar Ahmed said ballots had to be reprinted in some areas following last-minute court orders reinstating candidates, causing minor delays. Security arrangements include deploying 900,000 law enforcement personnel, with the army remaining in the field for seven days before and after the polls, and Ansar paramilitary forces for eight days. Some 1,050 executive magistrates will operate mobile courts from Feb. 8 to 14, BSS reported. The 13th Jatiya Sangsad (parliament) elections will see 2,034 candidates contesting across 300 constituencies, though voting in Sherpur-3 has been cancelled following the death of a Jamaat-e-Islami candidate. According to BSS, the commission has registered 127.7 million voters for the polls and referendum, with voting to be held at 42,779 polling stations nationwide.&nbsp; Fifty-one parties are contesting, alongside over 250 independents, while more than 800,000 officials and around 56,000 observers will oversee the process.&nbsp; Over 1.5 million voters, including expatriates, have registered for postal voting.

Election Commissioner Md Anwarul Islam Sarker (Photo by BSS/File)

Bangladesh

With ballots largely distributed and extensive security in place, authorities say the Feb. 12 vote will involve millions of voters, thousands of candidates and unprecedented monitoring.

Articles tagged with "Election"

Britons set to punish Starmer's Labour in local polls

Bangladesh Election Commission says poll preparations complete