In two closely watched by-elections in UK, voting started began yesterday. These elections run the risk of mounting pressure on Prime Minister Boris Johnson after months of scandals and setbacks.
After both Tory MPs resigned in disgrace, his ruling Conservatives are expected to lose both elections for the parliamentary seats of Tiverton and Honiton in southwest England and Wakefield in the north.
While Wakefield’s Imran Ahmad Khan was imprisoned for sexually assaulting a juvenile boy, Tiverton and Honiton’s Neil Parish resigned from the House of Commons after admitting to watching porn on his phone there.
Polls opened at 7am (0600 GMT) and will close at 10pm (2100 GMT), with results expected in the early hours of Friday.
The votes come just weeks after Johnson narrowly survived an attempt by his own lawmakers to oust him as party leader and prime minister.
The June 6 vote among Conservative MPs saw more than 40 percent of the parliamentary party desert him, leaving him severely weakened and struggling to reset his turbulent tenure.
Johnson has spent months fighting for his survival after a series of controversies including the “Partygate” saga led many Tories to question whether he should remain as leader.
Various opinion polls have shown the public think he lied about Covid lockdown-breaking events at Downing Street and should resign.
Even before the controversy erupted last December, the 58-year-old Brexit architect saw the loss of two once-safe seats in by-elections last year.
Africa Daily News, New York recalls that he performed dismally in May’s local elections.
Defeat in the true blue Tory heartland of Tiverton and Honiton, and in Wakefield, which Johnson snatched in 2019 from the main opposition Labour party for the first time since the 1930s, could see his position challenged again.
