Tony Blair Wins British Elections

By John Kakande in London TONY Blair yesterday became the first British Labour Prime Minister to be elected to a consecutive second term since his Party was formed 100 years ago. With the majority of the constituency results announced, it is now certain that Blair's Labour Party had won a landslide in the Thursday general elections. Both the Tory leader William Hague and Liberal Democrats boss Charles Kennedy conceded defeat. There have not been massive festivities. There were celebrations at the Labour headquarters while at the Tory headquarters the mood was of dejection. Hague early yesterday morning addressed Tory headquarters' staff and officials and conceded defeat. Blair's landslide victory has, however, been dampened by very low voter turnout. Projections indicate that turn out was between 55 and 65%, the lowest since 1918. At a number of polling stations visited by The New Vision in Birmingham, there were no queues as happens in presidential and parliamentary elections in Uganda. Voters strolled in one by one and most voters reportedly cast their votes late in the evening after work since polling day is not a public holiday here. Voting closed at 10:00 pm local time (12 midnight E.A time) and announcing of results started shortly thereafter and went on through the night. By this morning, results from constituencies in Northern Ireland and other areas had not been received in London. Hague announced he was stepping down as Tory leader following the crushing defeat suffered by his party, the second since 1997. Hague, 40, has been party leader for only four years and speculation is rife that he may be succeeded by either Ann Widdercombe or Michael Portillo. The Secretary of State for International Development, Clare Short, retained her Birmingham Ladywood seat with a 68.8% majority vote. There were no upsets for any top Labour or Tory leaders. But junior minister David Lock was defeated by an Independent, Dr Richard Taylor, in Worcestershire. Ends