LONDON -- Britain's Conservative Party won most seats in the House of Commons but failed to gain an overall majority in the general election, a major exit poll commissioned by the BBC, ITV News and Sky News on Thursday night predicted.
The poll showed that the Conservatives would win 316 seats in the 650-member parliament, ahead of the Labor Party with 239. The Scottish National Party (SNP) stood in the third place with 58 seats. The UK Independence Party (UKIP) obtained 2 seats.
The figures indicated that Britain was most likely to have a hung parliament again. A party needs to win at least 326 of all 650 seats in the House of Commons to form a majority government.
The results of this initial verdict were announced when the polls closed at 10 p.m. local time (2100 GMT).
The exit poll was based on interviews with nearly 20,000 voters from around 140 carefully selected polling stations across Britain.
Counting of the vote would continue through the night, and the winner would not be known at least until Friday morning when enough results from constituencies have been declared.
