London:
After one of the most passionately contested elections in decades, Britain faced the stalemate of a hung Parliament on Friday, with no party likely to command an outright majority despite significant gains by the opposition Conservatives and damaging losses for Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
But, as the country braced for days of wrangling to form a new government, Mr. Brown signaled that he would not immediately step down, even though his party lost its parliamentary majority, shedding at least 86 seats while the opposition Conservatives surged ahead with a 92-seat gain.
"The election results are likely to show there is no clear majority for any single party," Mr. Brown said in a statement. In effect, the results brought an abrupt and messy end to 13 years of unalloyed Labour majority power.
"As I said last night, it is my duty as prime minister to take all steps to ensure Britain has a strong, stable and principled government," Mr. Brown said, adding that he had asked senior civil servant to assist all the parties in talks to devise an exit from the impasse, the first of its kind since the 1970s.
Mr. Brown's statement was issued with results declared in more than 620 of the 650 voting districts, showing that none of the three main contenders had achieved their ambitions.
The Conservatives, led by David Cameron, were set to win the largest number of seats but not an outright majority. Labour, seeking a fourth term, lagged in second place while the third party, the left-of-center Liberal Democrats, failed to make the gains forecast before Thursday's vote.
Mr. Brown's lieutenants nonetheless sought to coax the Liberal Democrats toward some kind of an alliance that would enable Labour to cling to office. But, the BBC reported, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said he believed the party with the most votes and the most seats -- the Conservatives -- should seek to form a new government.
The outcome plunged the political elite into frantic calculations to devise an alliance able to produce a parliamentary majority, but the results offered no easy computations. Barring a last-minute swing, the only obvious arrangement yielding a majority would come from an alliance of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats -- but they have profound ideological differences.
Britain's uncodified constitution does not offer clear guidelines.
Parties with a plurality of the votes, for instance, may form a minority government, as happened in the 1970s, but the rules also permit the incumbent prime minister to remain in office and try to negotiate an alliance.
Any new government must be able to withstand an early confidence vote in Parliament.
By late morning on Friday, the Conservatives had gained 92 parliamentary seats, Labour had lost 87 and the Liberal Democrats were down by five seats compared to the 2005 vote. The Conservatives also won an estimated 36 percent of the ballot compared to 29 percent for Labour and 23 percent for the Liberal Democrats.
A BBC projection forecast that the Conservatives would secure 306 seats, Labour 261 and the Liberal Democrats an unexpectedly low 54.
The electoral math seemed to have left even the most experienced politicians baffled about what the vote meant. "The public have turned a page, but it's not clear what chapter they want to open," said Peter Mandelson, the Labour Party's chief strategist.
Labour, he said, had "the right to seek to form a government" with other parties if the Conservatives fell short of a majority.
In a series of radio interviews, he said the only way for the Liberal Democrats to achieve their policy goals was now through an alliance or some other arrangement with Labour. But the unimpressive performance of the Liberal Democrats stood as a potential obstacle to that plan, since the projected combined vote of Liberal Democrats and Labour would not yield a parliamentary majority.
The uncertainty helped drive the British pound to $1.46, its lowest level against the dollar $ in over a year. As the morning progressed, the country's leading politicians huddled with aides or grabbed a few hours sleep before mapping out strategies for a slice of power.
As he won re-election in his Oxfordshire constituency, Mr. Cameron said his party appeared likely to win more seats than in any election in 80 years, but avoided making claim to the keys at 10 Downing Street, saying, "What will guide me will be what's in the national interest."
If that hinted at a Conservative bid to govern with the Liberal Democrats, he was unsparing in his remarks about Labour. "I believe it's already clear that Labour has lost its mandate to govern," he said.
Nonetheless, a long line of powerful Labour figures appeared on television to set out what appeared to be an orchestrated rationale for hanging on to power.
Victorious in his Scottish constituency with an increased majority, Mr. Brown appeared deliberately ambiguous, leaving open the question of whether he would fight to stay on as prime minister, or step aside to make way for another Labour leader more acceptable to the Liberal Democrats.
But he offered "far-reaching reforms to our political system" -- apparently an overture to the Liberal Democrats who have made electoral reform a non-negotiable condition for partnership with other, larger parties in some form of coalition or alliance.
During the election campaign, Mr. Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, took strong exception to the idea that Mr. Brown might continue to, as he put it, "squat" in 10 Downing Street, if he lost the election, prompting speculation that he would be more prepared to ally himself with Labour if it ousted Mr. Brown in favor of another leader.
Voting patterns seemed to reflect what Paddy Ashdown, a former Liberal Democrat leader, called a "muddled" situation after the vote.
Results showed a sharp swing from Labour to the Conservatives in seats in northern England that had been Labour strongholds for decades, with voter shifts from one party to the other that ranged from 5 to 11 percent. And early returns from central and southern England suggested a similarly strong shift to the Conservatives -- in some cases as high as 10 percent -- that raised, at least briefly, Conservative hopes of gaining a clear majority.
But the overall picture was spotty, with the Conservatives not posting the consistent gains across the country that they needed, and with the Labour vote holding up far better in some areas, especially Scotland, than in others. Notably, the Conservatives failed to win several seats that were high on a list of 116 that they identified as the most promising targets.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the lackluster performance of the Liberal Democrats, who failed to make the major breakthrough that many had expected after the show-stealing performance of Mr. Clegg, the party leader, in three televised election debates that were the centerpiece of the campaign.
Election experts said a final picture of the count would probably not be available until early afternoon on Friday, and that in a close finish between the two parties, results from some outlying areas, such as distant parts of Scotland, could take much longer.
One count, in Northern Ireland, was suspended because of a bomb scare, a reminder of the decades of sectarian violence that raged before the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 that the Labour government counts as one of its major achievements.
In dozens of other seats, voters gathered angrily outside polling stations after officials shut the doors as the voting hours expired with hundreds of would-be voters still waiting in line. The BBC said that the national turnout appeared to have been substantially higher than in the last election, in 2005, when barely 61 percent of an electorate of about 45 million people cast ballots.
But, as the country braced for days of wrangling to form a new government, Mr. Brown signaled that he would not immediately step down, even though his party lost its parliamentary majority, shedding at least 86 seats while the opposition Conservatives surged ahead with a 92-seat gain.
"The election results are likely to show there is no clear majority for any single party," Mr. Brown said in a statement. In effect, the results brought an abrupt and messy end to 13 years of unalloyed Labour majority power.
"As I said last night, it is my duty as prime minister to take all steps to ensure Britain has a strong, stable and principled government," Mr. Brown said, adding that he had asked senior civil servant to assist all the parties in talks to devise an exit from the impasse, the first of its kind since the 1970s.
Mr. Brown's statement was issued with results declared in more than 620 of the 650 voting districts, showing that none of the three main contenders had achieved their ambitions.
The Conservatives, led by David Cameron, were set to win the largest number of seats but not an outright majority. Labour, seeking a fourth term, lagged in second place while the third party, the left-of-center Liberal Democrats, failed to make the gains forecast before Thursday's vote.
Mr. Brown's lieutenants nonetheless sought to coax the Liberal Democrats toward some kind of an alliance that would enable Labour to cling to office. But, the BBC reported, the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, said he believed the party with the most votes and the most seats -- the Conservatives -- should seek to form a new government.
The outcome plunged the political elite into frantic calculations to devise an alliance able to produce a parliamentary majority, but the results offered no easy computations. Barring a last-minute swing, the only obvious arrangement yielding a majority would come from an alliance of Conservatives and Liberal Democrats -- but they have profound ideological differences.
Britain's uncodified constitution does not offer clear guidelines.
Parties with a plurality of the votes, for instance, may form a minority government, as happened in the 1970s, but the rules also permit the incumbent prime minister to remain in office and try to negotiate an alliance.
Any new government must be able to withstand an early confidence vote in Parliament.
By late morning on Friday, the Conservatives had gained 92 parliamentary seats, Labour had lost 87 and the Liberal Democrats were down by five seats compared to the 2005 vote. The Conservatives also won an estimated 36 percent of the ballot compared to 29 percent for Labour and 23 percent for the Liberal Democrats.
A BBC projection forecast that the Conservatives would secure 306 seats, Labour 261 and the Liberal Democrats an unexpectedly low 54.
The electoral math seemed to have left even the most experienced politicians baffled about what the vote meant. "The public have turned a page, but it's not clear what chapter they want to open," said Peter Mandelson, the Labour Party's chief strategist.
Labour, he said, had "the right to seek to form a government" with other parties if the Conservatives fell short of a majority.
In a series of radio interviews, he said the only way for the Liberal Democrats to achieve their policy goals was now through an alliance or some other arrangement with Labour. But the unimpressive performance of the Liberal Democrats stood as a potential obstacle to that plan, since the projected combined vote of Liberal Democrats and Labour would not yield a parliamentary majority.
The uncertainty helped drive the British pound to $1.46, its lowest level against the dollar $ in over a year. As the morning progressed, the country's leading politicians huddled with aides or grabbed a few hours sleep before mapping out strategies for a slice of power.
As he won re-election in his Oxfordshire constituency, Mr. Cameron said his party appeared likely to win more seats than in any election in 80 years, but avoided making claim to the keys at 10 Downing Street, saying, "What will guide me will be what's in the national interest."
If that hinted at a Conservative bid to govern with the Liberal Democrats, he was unsparing in his remarks about Labour. "I believe it's already clear that Labour has lost its mandate to govern," he said.
Nonetheless, a long line of powerful Labour figures appeared on television to set out what appeared to be an orchestrated rationale for hanging on to power.
Victorious in his Scottish constituency with an increased majority, Mr. Brown appeared deliberately ambiguous, leaving open the question of whether he would fight to stay on as prime minister, or step aside to make way for another Labour leader more acceptable to the Liberal Democrats.
But he offered "far-reaching reforms to our political system" -- apparently an overture to the Liberal Democrats who have made electoral reform a non-negotiable condition for partnership with other, larger parties in some form of coalition or alliance.
During the election campaign, Mr. Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, took strong exception to the idea that Mr. Brown might continue to, as he put it, "squat" in 10 Downing Street, if he lost the election, prompting speculation that he would be more prepared to ally himself with Labour if it ousted Mr. Brown in favor of another leader.
Voting patterns seemed to reflect what Paddy Ashdown, a former Liberal Democrat leader, called a "muddled" situation after the vote.
Results showed a sharp swing from Labour to the Conservatives in seats in northern England that had been Labour strongholds for decades, with voter shifts from one party to the other that ranged from 5 to 11 percent. And early returns from central and southern England suggested a similarly strong shift to the Conservatives -- in some cases as high as 10 percent -- that raised, at least briefly, Conservative hopes of gaining a clear majority.
But the overall picture was spotty, with the Conservatives not posting the consistent gains across the country that they needed, and with the Labour vote holding up far better in some areas, especially Scotland, than in others. Notably, the Conservatives failed to win several seats that were high on a list of 116 that they identified as the most promising targets.
Perhaps the biggest surprise was the lackluster performance of the Liberal Democrats, who failed to make the major breakthrough that many had expected after the show-stealing performance of Mr. Clegg, the party leader, in three televised election debates that were the centerpiece of the campaign.
Election experts said a final picture of the count would probably not be available until early afternoon on Friday, and that in a close finish between the two parties, results from some outlying areas, such as distant parts of Scotland, could take much longer.
One count, in Northern Ireland, was suspended because of a bomb scare, a reminder of the decades of sectarian violence that raged before the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998 that the Labour government counts as one of its major achievements.
In dozens of other seats, voters gathered angrily outside polling stations after officials shut the doors as the voting hours expired with hundreds of would-be voters still waiting in line. The BBC said that the national turnout appeared to have been substantially higher than in the last election, in 2005, when barely 61 percent of an electorate of about 45 million people cast ballots.
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