Indian military deployed and internet shut down as protests rage against citizenship bill - CNN

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was passed by the country's parliament on Wednesday, has been described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government as a means of protecting vulnerable groups from persecution.

Critics, however, say the bill marginalizes Muslims and undermines the country's secular constitution. Others say it risks bringing an unwanted influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan into India's northern states.

In Assam and Tripura, angry protesters marched through major cities Wednesday night and Thursday, holding flaming torches and setting alight car tires and piles of cardboard.

Indigenous groups in both states fear naturalizing large numbers of immigrants will change the region's demographics and way of life. India's northeast is home to more than 200 distinct indigenous minority groups. Both Assam and Tripura share a border with Bangladesh and some see the arrival of foreigners as a cultural threat regardless of religion; for others, anti-immigrant sentiment remains closely tied to religious divisions.

Images from the protests show crowds chanting slogans and holding signs that read, "We are Assamese and proud" and "Tripura is not the dumping ground of illegal migrants."

Police arrested and clashed with the protesters, using batons and firing tear gas. Around 1,800 people have been detained in Tripura since Wednesday, according to Rajiv Singh of the Tripura police force.

On Thursday, Indian military and paramilitary forces were deployed across the two states. In the Assam capital of Guwahati, the state's largest and most important city, authorities have shut down the internet "for an indefinite period," and announced a curfew.

Transit has also been affected by the unrest, with two domestic airlines canceling all flights to Assam Thursday.

National and local leaders are now calling for calm and order, with Modi appealing directly to Assam residents.

"I want to assure them -- no one can take away your rights, unique identity and beautiful culture. It will continue to flourish and grow," said Modi.

The bill, which will now be sent to the President to be signed into law, was approved in India's upper house Wednesday by a margin of 125-105, having previously passed the lower house 311-80.

Promise 'rings hollow'

Opponents of the bill say it is another example of how Modi and his his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pushed an agenda of Hindu nationalism onto secular India, a country of 1.3 billion people, at the expense of the Muslim population.

The BJP, which was re-elected in May, has its roots in India's Hindu right-wing movement, many followers of which see India as a Hindu nation.

In August, the Indian government stripped the majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status, essentially giving New Delhi more control over the region's affairs. That same month, nearly 2 million people in India's Assam were left off a controversial new National Register of Citizens, which critics feared could be used to justify religious discrimination against Muslims in the state.

And last month, India's top court gave Hindus permission to build a temple on a disputed centuries-old holy site, which holds significance for both Hindus and Muslims. The ruling on the Ayodhya site was seen as a blow to Muslims and came at a time when Muslims increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens.

The BJP maintain the bill is about protecting religious minorities by allowing them to become citizens.

India's Home Minister Amit Shah said in a tweet Wednesday that the bill "will allow India to open its doors to minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who are facing religious persecution."

"It is well known that those minorities who chose to make Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan their home had to constantly live in the fear of extinction," Shah said. "This amended legislation by Modi government will allow India to extend them dignity and an opportunity to rebuild their lives."

But opponents say India's claims that the citizenship law aims to protect religious minorities "rings hollow" because it excludes Muslim minorities who face persecution in neighboring countries, including the Ahmadiyya from Pakistan, Rohingya from Myanmar, and the Tamil from Sri Lanka.

"The bill uses the language of refuge and sanctuary, but discriminates on religious grounds in violation of international law," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.

Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Shah said that Muslims "will not benefit from this amendment because they have not been persecuted on the basis of religion."

Speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, he added: "Who are you worried about? Should we make the Muslims coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan citizens of the country? What do you want -- that we give every Muslim coming from any anywhere in the world citizenship? ... The country cannot function this way."

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2019-12-12 12:55:00Z
52780466586826

UK election: British voters have their say on Brexit, place in world - USA TODAY

Kim Hjelmgaard USA TODAY

Published 7:12 AM EST Dec 12, 2019

LONDON – Millions of people in Britain trudged toward voting booths Thursday on a cold and blustery day to decide whether to back Prime Minister Boris Johnson's plan to "get Brexit done" or support opposition parties that want to delay Britain's departure from the European Union or even cancel it altogether. 

The vote, Britain's first winter general election for nearly a century and its fourth national ballot in less than five years, is not formally directly connected to Brexit. But Johnson called the vote in an attempt to gain a working majority to break a parliamentary deadlock over the nation's EU exit.

An exit poll is due at 10 p.m. local time (5 p.m. ET). 

An overall result is expected in the early hours of Friday morning.

If Johnson's Conservative Party retains power with a comfortable majority in Parliament it will pave the way for him to push through Brexit on Jan. 31. If Johnson loses, or no single party gains an absolute majority – a "hung Parliament" – Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn may attempt to form a minority government by partnering with other opposition groups such as the Liberal Democrats. A total of 650 parliamentary seats are up for grabs. 

Britain's election: Mudslinging clouds UK's 'nightmare before Christmas' vote

The election comes three years after Britain narrowly voted to leave the EU. The nation is as divided now as it was in 2016. There is also a desire to move on. 

"We're fed up. This just needs to be over," said Julie Ames, 30, who works in a hair saloon, as she made her way to a voting station south of Britain's capital. 

British electoral law prohibits revealing details about how another person has voted. However, posts on social media indicated long lines at some voting stations, which is unusual in Britain. It could suggest that turnout is higher than anticipated, although it is not immediately clear which parties that would favor. 

The vote also comes amid allegations of disinformation campaigns and outright falsehoods disseminated by all the main political parties. However, Johnson's Conservative Party has done more than any other group to stretch the limits of truth and transparency, according to a study by First Draft, a media watchdog. It found that nearly 90% of Facebook ads paid for by the Conservatives in the first few days of December contained misleading claims.

Over the period, the Conservative Party created more than 6,000 ads. 

Corbyn, 70, has put the preservation of Britain's cherished state-funded National Health Service (HNS) at the center of his campaign. The Labour Party has argued that Brexit will cause the NHS to be opened up to U.S. pharmaceutical and technology firms as part of Johnson's drive to create a lower-taxed, more lightly regulated post-Brexit Britain. Johnson has repeatedly disputed that claim, though he has a record of being pro-big business and pro-development when he was London's mayor from 2008-2016. He has also openly stated falsehoods.  

"Standing behind the NHS is a kind of secular religion for all Britons," said Richard Whitman, a political scientist at the University of Kent, in England.

Whitman said the election represented a choice for Britain: retain close economic and political ties with Europe, or move closer to the United States as a consequence of an expected trade deal the two nations would sign after Brexit.  

Still, Johnson focused almost exclusively on Brexit throughout his campaign.

"If we can get a working majority, we have a deal, it's ready to go," Johnson, 55, said Wednesday during his final campaign appearance, in central England.

"We put it in, slam it in the oven, take it out and there it is – get Brexit done," the prime minister said, as he watched pies being baked at a catering company. 

Corbyn said Wednesday at his final campaign rally: "My message to all those voters who are still undecided is that you can vote for hope in this election."

The outcome of Thursday's vote could have major consequences for the United Kingdom's union of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU in 2016's vote and political leaders there have threatened to call an independence vote if Brexit takes place.    

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2019-12-12 11:46:05Z
52780464144156

Live Updates: U.K. Votes in General Election - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• How does the election work?
• There are tight restrictions on reporting.
• Broadcasters have a varied offering for Election Night.
• Forget politics. Dogs are at polling stations.

How does the election work?

Image

Workers preparing signs at a polling station in London on Thursday.Credit...Lisi Niesner/Reuters

Britain’s voters head to the polls in their local areas on Thursday to cast ballots for members of Parliament in the second general election to be held since the country voted to leave the European Union.

And while Brexit has dominated the agenda — with the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Boris Johnson putting the issue at the center of its campaign, vowing to “get Brexit done” — other key issues may determine the outcome. The opposition Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, has put health care at the center of its pitch, framing itself as the defender of Britain’s revered National Health Service.

Several smaller parties — including the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Brexit Party, and pro-independence parties in Scotland and Wales — are also running and could play a decisive role.

Voters will be choosing who will represent their local district, or constituency, in Parliament: 650 lawmakers in total will be chosen as members of the House of Commons, which decides the country’s laws and policies. Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., and the results of exit polls will begin to emerge almost immediately after the end of the vote, with the official results coming in overnight.

There are tight restrictions on reporting.

Once polls are open on Election Day, the British broadcasters that were reporting feverishly in the lead-up to the vote will suddenly have a noticeable lack of coverage.

It’s illegal for anyone in Britain to publish information on how people say they have voted — exit polling, or forecasts based on it — until after polls close at 10 p.m. local time.

The rules for broadcasters go further, however. A code of conduct laid out by Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, specifies that all discussion and analysis of election issues on television and radio must cease once polls open, that no opinion polls can be published and that no coverage of opinion polls is allowed while people are voting.

“When people are going to the polls on Election Day, it’s important that everyone can vote on the same information,” the regulator explained.

The Guardian has an item on its live briefing urging readers to comment, but to avoid saying how they voted.

“Please keep posting your comments below, but don’t say how you voted,” the note reads. “The Representation of the People Act outlaws the reporting of how people voted.”

Broadcasters’ websites generally follow suit. “There will be no coverage of any issues directly pertinent to the election campaigns on any BBC outlet,” according to the public broadcaster’s internal election guidelines.

But the broadcaster found itself in hot water almost immediately when Laura Kuenssberg, a political editor, offered a short assessment of the postal vote on Wednesday night. The BBC denied that her comment broke any laws.

Broadcasters have a varied offering for Election Night.

While broadcasters must keep quiet on substantive issues while polls are open, when they close it’s another story. The BBC pioneered televised election night coverage in 1950, when the main concern was whether keeping the transmitter going throughout the night might make it explode.

Now, rolling coverage is standard and the offerings from British broadcasters are a far cry from the radio reports in the first half of the 20th century, when “listeners simply tuned in to the radio to hear the election results read by an announcer.”

The BBC will, as always, be there to broadcast and analyze the results as they are announced. But it faces stiff competition for eyeballs from other broadcasters.

John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons who burnished his reputation during endless Brexit debates, will be taking his shouts for “Order!” to Sky News for election night.

“John will bring his own authority, and no little wit to a night of high drama,” said John Ryley, the head of Sky News. The broadcaster will also try to entice younger views by partnering with BuzzFeed and streaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube.

Channel 4 has brought on board political heavyweights like Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, and Tom Watson, the former deputy Labour leader, as well as comedians like Katherine Ryan. They will also be joined by Rylan Clark-Neal, a former contestant on the talent show “The X Factor” and on the British “Celebrity Big Brother” who will be talking through results with the studio audience. On his role, Mr. Clark-Neal said, “Who would have thought that as an ‘X-Factor’ reject I would be hosting election night?”

Forget politics. Dogs are at polling stations.

#Dogsatpollingstations has become something of an Election Day tradition in Britain, with voters sharing photographs of their pups outside their local polling stations. And with three general elections and the Brexit referendum held since 2015, people have had plenty of chances to participate.

Several high-profile voters got in on the action on Thursday, with Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, accompanied by his dog, Luna, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving with his dog, Dilyn.

In much of Britain, the dogs and their owners had to brave a cold, wet morning at the polls, but few seemed to mind.

Mark Landler, Stephen Castle, Amie Tsang, Megan Specia, Adam Satariano, Benjamin Mueller and Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting.

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2019-12-12 11:21:00Z
52780464144156

Indian military deployed and internet shut down as protests rage against citizenship bill - CNN

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was passed by the country's parliament on Wednesday, has been described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government as a means of protecting vulnerable groups from persecution.

Critics, however, say the bill marginalizes Muslims and undermines the country's secular constitution. Others say it risks bringing an unwanted influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan into India's northern states.

In Assam and Tripura, angry protesters marched through major cities Wednesday night and Thursday, holding flaming torches and setting alight car tires and piles of cardboard.

Indigenous groups in both states fear naturalizing large numbers of immigrants will change the region's demographics and way of life. India's northeast is home to more than 200 distinct indigenous minority groups. Both Assam and Tripura share a border with Bangladesh and some see the arrival of foreigners as a cultural threat regardless of religion; for others, anti-immigrant sentiment remains closely tied to religious divisions.

Images from the protests show crowds chanting slogans and holding signs that read, "We are Assamese and proud" and "Tripura is not the dumping ground of illegal migrants."

Police arrested and clashed with the protesters, using batons and firing tear gas. Around 1,800 people have been detained in Tripura since Wednesday, according to Rajiv Singh of the Tripura police force.

On Thursday, Indian military and paramilitary forces were deployed across the two states. In the Assam capital of Guwahati, the state's largest and most important city, authorities have shut down the internet "for an indefinite period," and announced a curfew.

Transit has also been affected by the unrest, with two domestic airlines canceling all flights to Assam Thursday.

National and local leaders are now calling for calm and order, with Modi appealing directly to Assam residents.

"I want to assure them -- no one can take away your rights, unique identity and beautiful culture. It will continue to flourish and grow," said Modi.

The bill, which will now be sent to the President to be signed into law, was approved in India's upper house Wednesday by a margin of 125-105, having previously passed the lower house 311-80.

Promise 'rings hollow'

Opponents of the bill say it is another example of how Modi and his his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pushed an agenda of Hindu nationalism onto secular India, a country of 1.3 billion people, at the expense of the Muslim population.

The BJP, which was re-elected in May, has its roots in India's Hindu right-wing movement, many followers of which see India as a Hindu nation.

In August, the Indian government stripped the majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status, essentially giving New Delhi more control over the region's affairs. That same month, nearly 2 million people in India's Assam were left off a controversial new National Register of Citizens, which critics feared could be used to justify religious discrimination against Muslims in the state.

And last month, India's top court gave Hindus permission to build a temple on a disputed centuries-old holy site, which holds significance for both Hindus and Muslims. The ruling on the Ayodhya site was seen as a blow to Muslims and came at a time when Muslims increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens.

The BJP maintain the bill is about protecting religious minorities by allowing them to become citizens.

India's Home Minister Amit Shah said in a tweet Wednesday that the bill "will allow India to open its doors to minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who are facing religious persecution."

"It is well known that those minorities who chose to make Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan their home had to constantly live in the fear of extinction," Shah said. "This amended legislation by Modi government will allow India to extend them dignity and an opportunity to rebuild their lives."

But opponents say India's claims that the citizenship law aims to protect religious minorities "rings hollow" because it excludes Muslim minorities who face persecution in neighboring countries, including the Ahmadiyya from Pakistan, Rohingya from Myanmar, and the Tamil from Sri Lanka.

"The bill uses the language of refuge and sanctuary, but discriminates on religious grounds in violation of international law," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.

Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Shah said that Muslims "will not benefit from this amendment because they have not been persecuted on the basis of religion."

Speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, he added: "Who are you worried about? Should we make the Muslims coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan citizens of the country? What do you want -- that we give every Muslim coming from any anywhere in the world citizenship? ... The country cannot function this way."

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2019-12-12 10:33:00Z
52780466586826

Live Updates: U.K. Votes in General Election - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• How does the election work?
• There are tight restrictions on reporting.
• Broadcasters have a varied offering for Election Night.
• Forget politics. Dogs are at polling stations.

How does the election work?

Image

Workers preparing signs at a polling station in London on Thursday.Credit...Lisi Niesner/Reuters

Britain’s voters head to the polls in their local areas on Thursday to cast ballots for members of Parliament in the second general election to be held since the country voted to leave the European Union.

And while Brexit has dominated the agenda — with the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Boris Johnson putting the issue at the center of its campaign, vowing to “get Brexit done” — other key issues may determine the outcome. The opposition Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, has put health care at the center of its pitch, framing itself as the defender of Britain’s revered National Health Service.

Several smaller parties — including the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Brexit Party, and pro-independence parties in Scotland and Wales — are also running and could play a decisive role.

Voters will be choosing who will represent their local district, or constituency, in Parliament: 650 lawmakers in total will be chosen as members of the House of Commons, which decides the country’s laws and policies. Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., and the results of exit polls will begin to emerge almost immediately after the end of the vote, with the official results coming in overnight.

There are tight restrictions on reporting.

Once polls are open on Election Day, the British broadcasters that were reporting feverishly in the lead-up to the vote will suddenly have a noticeable lack of coverage.

It’s illegal for anyone in Britain to publish information on how people say they have voted — exit polling, or forecasts based on it — until after polls close at 10 p.m. local time.

The rules for broadcasters go further, however. A code of conduct laid out by Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, specifies that all discussion and analysis of election issues on television and radio must cease once polls open, that no opinion polls can be published and that no coverage of opinion polls is allowed while people are voting.

“When people are going to the polls on Election Day, it’s important that everyone can vote on the same information,” the regulator explained.

The Guardian has an item on its live briefing urging readers to comment, but to avoid saying how they voted.

“Please keep posting your comments below, but don’t say how you voted,” the note reads. “The Representation of the People Act outlaws the reporting of how people voted.”

Broadcasters’ websites generally follow suit. “There will be no coverage of any issues directly pertinent to the election campaigns on any BBC outlet,” according to the public broadcaster’s internal election guidelines.

But the broadcaster found itself in hot water almost immediately when Laura Kuenssberg, a political editor, offered a short assessment of the postal vote on Wednesday night. The BBC denied that her comment broke any laws.

Broadcasters have a varied offering for Election Night.

While broadcasters must keep quiet on substantive issues while polls are open, when they close it’s another story. The BBC pioneered televised election night coverage in 1950, when the main concern was whether keeping the transmitter going throughout the night might make it explode.

Now, rolling coverage is standard and the offerings from British broadcasters are a far cry from the radio reports in the first half of the 20th century, when “listeners simply tuned in to the radio to hear the election results read by an announcer.”

The BBC will, as always, be there to broadcast and analyze the results as they are announced. But it faces stiff competition for eyeballs from other broadcasters.

John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons who burnished his reputation during endless Brexit debates, will be taking his shouts for “Order!” to Sky News for election night.

“John will bring his own authority, and no little wit to a night of high drama,” said John Ryley, the head of Sky News. The broadcaster will also try to entice younger views by partnering with BuzzFeed and streaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube.

Channel 4 has brought on board political heavyweights like Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, and Tom Watson, the former deputy Labour leader, as well as comedians like Katherine Ryan. They will also be joined by Rylan Clark-Neal, a former contestant on the talent show “The X Factor” and on the British “Celebrity Big Brother” who will be talking through results with the studio audience. On his role, Mr. Clark-Neal said, “Who would have thought that as an ‘X-Factor’ reject I would be hosting election night?”

Forget politics. Dogs are at polling stations.

#Dogsatpollingstations has become something of an Election Day tradition in Britain, with voters sharing photographs of their pups outside their local polling stations. And with three general elections and the Brexit referendum held since 2015, people have had plenty of chances to participate.

Several high-profile voters got in on the action on Thursday, with Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, accompanied by his dog, Luna, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving with his dog, Dilyn.

In much of Britain, the dogs and their owners had to brave a cold, wet morning at the polls, but few seemed to mind.

Mark Landler, Stephen Castle, Amie Tsang, Megan Specia, Adam Satariano, Benjamin Mueller and Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting.

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2019-12-12 11:06:00Z
52780464144156

Indian military deployed and internet shut down as protests rage against citizenship bill - CNN

The Citizenship Amendment Bill, which was passed by the country's parliament on Wednesday, has been described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist government as a means of protecting vulnerable groups from persecution.

Critics, however, say the bill marginalizes Muslims and undermines the country's secular constitution. Others say it risks bringing an unwanted influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan into India's northern states.

In Assam and Tripura, angry protesters marched through major cities Wednesday night and Thursday, holding flaming torches and setting alight car tires and piles of cardboard.

Indigenous groups in both states fear naturalizing large numbers of immigrants will change the region's demographics and way of life. India's northeast is home to more than 200 distinct indigenous minority groups. Both Assam and Tripura share a border with Bangladesh and some see the arrival of foreigners as a cultural threat regardless of religion; for others, anti-immigrant sentiment remains closely tied to religious divisions.

Images from the protests show crowds chanting slogans and holding signs that read, "We are Assamese and proud" and "Tripura is not the dumping ground of illegal migrants."

Police arrested and clashed with the protesters, using batons and firing tear gas. Around 1,800 people have been detained in Tripura since Wednesday, according to Rajiv Singh of the Tripura police force.

On Thursday, Indian military and paramilitary forces were deployed across the two states. In the Assam capital of Guwahati, the state's largest and most important city, authorities have shut down the internet "for an indefinite period," and announced a curfew.

Transit has also been affected by the unrest, with two domestic airlines canceling all flights to Assam Thursday.

National and local leaders are now calling for calm and order, with Modi appealing directly to Assam residents.

"I want to assure them -- no one can take away your rights, unique identity and beautiful culture. It will continue to flourish and grow," said Modi.

The bill, which will now be sent to the President to be signed into law, was approved in India's upper house Wednesday by a margin of 125-105, having previously passed the lower house 311-80.

Promise 'rings hollow'

Opponents of the bill say it is another example of how Modi and his his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have pushed an agenda of Hindu nationalism onto secular India, a country of 1.3 billion people, at the expense of the Muslim population.

The BJP, which was re-elected in May, has its roots in India's Hindu right-wing movement, many followers of which see India as a Hindu nation.

In August, the Indian government stripped the majority-Muslim state of Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomous status, essentially giving New Delhi more control over the region's affairs. That same month, nearly 2 million people in India's Assam were left off a controversial new National Register of Citizens, which critics feared could be used to justify religious discrimination against Muslims in the state.

And last month, India's top court gave Hindus permission to build a temple on a disputed centuries-old holy site, which holds significance for both Hindus and Muslims. The ruling on the Ayodhya site was seen as a blow to Muslims and came at a time when Muslims increasingly see themselves as second-class citizens.

The BJP maintain the bill is about protecting religious minorities by allowing them to become citizens.

India's Home Minister Amit Shah said in a tweet Wednesday that the bill "will allow India to open its doors to minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who are facing religious persecution."

"It is well known that those minorities who chose to make Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan their home had to constantly live in the fear of extinction," Shah said. "This amended legislation by Modi government will allow India to extend them dignity and an opportunity to rebuild their lives."

But opponents say India's claims that the citizenship law aims to protect religious minorities "rings hollow" because it excludes Muslim minorities who face persecution in neighboring countries, including the Ahmadiyya from Pakistan, Rohingya from Myanmar, and the Tamil from Sri Lanka.

"The bill uses the language of refuge and sanctuary, but discriminates on religious grounds in violation of international law," said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, in a statement.

Addressing Parliament on Tuesday, Shah said that Muslims "will not benefit from this amendment because they have not been persecuted on the basis of religion."

Speaking to Parliament on Wednesday, he added: "Who are you worried about? Should we make the Muslims coming from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan citizens of the country? What do you want -- that we give every Muslim coming from any anywhere in the world citizenship? ... The country cannot function this way."

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2019-12-12 09:52:00Z
52780466586826

Live Updates: U.K. Votes in General Election - The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

• How does the election work?
• There are tight restrictions on reporting.
• Broadcasters have a varied offering for Election Night.
• Forget politics. Dogs are at polling stations.

How does the election work?

Image

Workers preparing signs at a polling station in London on Thursday.Credit...Lisi Niesner/Reuters

Britain’s voters head to the polls in their local areas on Thursday to cast ballots for members of Parliament in the second general election to be held since the country voted to leave the European Union.

And while Brexit has dominated the agenda — with the Conservative Party of Prime Minister Boris Johnson putting the issue at the center of its campaign, vowing to “get Brexit done” — other key issues may determine the outcome. The opposition Labour Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, has put health care at the center of its pitch, framing itself as the defender of Britain’s revered National Health Service.

Several smaller parties — including the Liberal Democrats, Greens and Brexit Party, and pro-independence parties in Scotland and Wales — are also running and could play a decisive role.

Voters will be choosing who will represent their local district, or constituency, in Parliament: 650 lawmakers in total will be chosen as members of the House of Commons, which decides the country’s laws and policies. Polls are open from 7 a.m. until 10 p.m., and the results of exit polls will begin to emerge almost immediately after the end of the vote, with the official results coming in overnight.

There are tight restrictions on reporting.

Once polls are open on Election Day, the British broadcasters that were reporting feverishly in the lead-up to the vote will suddenly have a noticeable lack of coverage.

It’s illegal for anyone in Britain to publish information on how people say they have voted — exit polling, or forecasts based on it — until after polls close at 10 p.m. local time.

The rules for broadcasters go further, however. A code of conduct laid out by Britain’s communications regulator, Ofcom, specifies that all discussion and analysis of election issues on television and radio must cease once polls open, that no opinion polls can be published and that no coverage of opinion polls is allowed while people are voting.

“When people are going to the polls on Election Day, it’s important that everyone can vote on the same information,” the regulator explained.

The Guardian has an item on its live briefing urging readers to comment, but to avoid saying how they voted.

“Please keep posting your comments below, but don’t say how you voted,” the note reads. “The Representation of the People Act outlaws the reporting of how people voted.”

Broadcasters’ websites generally follow suit. “There will be no coverage of any issues directly pertinent to the election campaigns on any BBC outlet,” according to the public broadcaster’s internal election guidelines.

But the broadcaster found itself in hot water almost immediately when Laura Kuenssberg, a political editor, offered a short assessment of the postal vote on Wednesday night. The BBC denied that her comment broke any laws.

Broadcasters have a varied offering for Election Night.

While broadcasters must keep quite on substantive issues while polls are open, when they close it’s another story. The BBC pioneered televised election night coverage in 1950, when the main concern was whether keeping the transmitter going throughout the night might make it explode.

Now, rolling coverage is standard and the offerings from British broadcasters are a far cry from the radio reports in the first half of the 20th century, when “listeners simply tuned in to the radio to hear the election results read by an announcer.”

The BBC will, as always, be there to broadcast and analyze the results as they are announced. But it faces stiff competition for eyeballs from other broadcasters.

John Bercow, the former speaker of the House of Commons who burnished his reputation during endless Brexit debates, will be taking his shouts for “Order!” to Sky News for election night.

“John will bring his own authority, and no little wit to a night of high drama,” said John Ryley, the head of Sky News. The broadcaster will also try to entice younger views by partnering with BuzzFeed and streaming on platforms like Twitch and YouTube.

Channel 4 has brought on board political heavyweights like Amber Rudd, the former home secretary, and Tom Watson, the former deputy Labour leader, as well as comedians like Katherine Ryan. They will also be joined by Rylan Clark-Neal, a former contestant on the talent show “The X Factor” and on the British “Celebrity Big Brother” who will be talking through results with the studio audience. On his role, Mr. Clark-Neal said, “Who would have thought that as an ‘X-Factor’ reject I would be hosting election night?”

Forget politics. Dogs are at polling stations.

#Dogsatpollingstations has become something of an Election Day tradition in Britain, with voters sharing photographs of their pups outside their local polling stations. And with three general elections and the Brexit referendum held since 2015, people have had plenty of chances to participate.

Several high-profile voters got in on the action on Thursday, with Sadiq Khan, the mayor of London, accompanied by his dog, Luna, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson arriving with his dog, Dilyn.

In much of Britain, the dogs and their owners had to brave a cold, wet morning at the polls, but few seemed to mind.

Mark Landler, Adam Satariano, Amie Tsang, Megan Specia, Benjamin Mueller and Patrick Kingsley contributed reporting.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMiSGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMTkvMTIvMTIvd29ybGQvZXVyb3BlL3VrLWVsZWN0aW9ucy1icmV4aXQuaHRtbNIBTGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3Lm55dGltZXMuY29tLzIwMTkvMTIvMTIvd29ybGQvZXVyb3BlL3VrLWVsZWN0aW9ucy1icmV4aXQuYW1wLmh0bWw?oc=5

2019-12-12 09:46:00Z
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