Hung parliament

Results from Britain's closest general election in decades have confirmed that none of the country’s major parties have gained enough votes to form a government.

The opposition Conservative party has won the greatest number of seats in parliament, but not enough for an overall majority.

According to results from 615 of the UK’s 649 constituencies, the Conservatives have 291 seats, followed by incumbent Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour with 247 and the Liberal Democrats with 51.

"Nationally, we have to wait for the full results to come out," Cameron said earlier in his acceptance speech for his local constituency of Witney, a rural region in the south of England. "But I believe it is already clear that the Labour government has lost its mandate to govern our country."

The results represent a vast improvement on the last election for the Conservative party. However, in the run-up to the vote it had initially appeared that the Tories would comfortably win an outright majority, with their advantage in the polls only slipping in the last month or so.

Brown down, but not out

Prime Minister Gordon Brown, trying to secure a fourth term for his Labour party and contesting the first general election since his predecessor Tony Blair stepped down, comfortably won the Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath constituency in his native Scotland.

"The outcome of this country's vote is not yet known," Brown said after securing his place in parliament. "But my duty to the country coming out of this election is to play my part in Britain having a strong, stable and principled government."

Labour has been in power with a clear majority since 1997, and although the party looks certain to have lost its superiority over the Conservatives, Brown may yet be able to broker an alliance and rule in coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

Hung parliament most likely

However, a coalition between the Liberal Democrats and Labour would still fall short of a parliamentary majority, according to the current projected results.

Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrat party looks set to gather a similar amount of seats as in the last vote in 2005, roughly one tenth of the 650 available.

A minority government, led by the Conservatives, is another possibility for the UK once the final results are in.

A British general election has not delivered a hung parliament since the 1970s, and this unusually close race means that definitive results will not be available as early as usual.

Queen Elizabeth II must approve the next British government, and is likely to do so at some stage on Friday. However, a new parliament is not due to be sworn in at Westminster until May 25.

Meanwhile, police across the UK are currently investigating allegations of electoral fraud. The claims involve alleged fraudulent postal voting and false registration of voters’ addresses.

dfm/msh/AP/Reuters
Editor: Martin Kuebler