Exit poll shows Conservative gains in UK election

 David Cameron's Conservative Party is projected to win the most seats in the UK election, but the country could be heading for a "hung parliament," according to the first exit poll after voting ended.

The BBC/Sky/ITV News poll projected the Conservatives winning 307 seats in the House of Commons. Gordon Brown's Labour Party, in power for the last 13 years, is projected to win 255 seats while Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats are projected to win 59 seats.

A hung parliament is the term used when no single party controls an overall majority. But Cameron would likely claim a mandate to form the country's next government if the results of the exit poll are borne out by results.
The casting of ballots across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland caps a month-long election campaign marked by Britain's first-ever televised debates among the leaders of the three main parties: Brown, David Cameron of the Conservative Party and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats.

Brown has stood at the center of British government since 1997, when Labour ended 18 years of Conservative rule -- first as the powerful chancellor, or finance minister, under Tony Blair for a decade, and then as prime minister since 2007.
Cameron, Brown, and Clegg all voted in their constituencies before 11:30 a.m., waving to the hordes of photographers who followed them from their houses to the polling stations and back to their cars

Polling stations are open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m. local time (2 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET.). Many smaller parties also are competing, including nationalist parties such as the Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru in Wales, and unionist and republican parties in Northern Ireland.

The far-right British National Party is hoping to win its first seats in the House of Commons after having won races for European Parliament seats last year. The United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) is also fielding candidates, as is the venerable if satirical Monster Raving Loony Party, whose candidates have been known to say, "Vote for insanity! You know it makes sense!"

After the election there will be 650 seats in the Commons, four more than in the previous Parliament. Voters are only choosing representatives for 649 seats. However, because of the death of a UKIP candidate in the Thirsk and Malton constituency in North Yorkshire, the election there has now been moved to May 27, local officials said.

The candidate who gets the most votes in a constituency wins; it's not necessary to win an absolute majority of votes in a constituency to win the seat. The leader of the party with the most seats in the Commons traditionally gets the first chance to form a government.

Due to the structure of the British voting system, one party normally wins a majority of seats, even though there are three national parties.
The last time no one party captured more than half of the seats in the Commons was in 1974. That government proved unstable, and voters were back at the polls within months.

Source: http://edition.cnn.com