Legal challenges to UK poll result likely

LONDON - Crowds of British voters turned away from polling stations have staged sit-ins and tried to block officials from taking ballot boxes.

Britain's Electoral Commission said challenges to some national election results were likely after hundreds of voters were turned away from polling stations that closed despite long lines of people waiting to cast their ballot.

Voters in the cities of London, Sheffield and Birmingham and elsewhere held demonstrations after they were told they wouldn't be able to take part in the election because they were too late.

Electoral commission head Jenny Watson told the BBC there could be formal challenges to the results in some locations.

Police were called in London to one demonstration where 50 people refused to leave a polling centre after officials told them they were too late to vote. In other areas those turned away were reported to have attempted to prevent officials from taking away ballot boxes.

Liz Veitch, in the east London neighborhood of Hackney, said she'd been frozen out after waiting for more than an hour and a half, with a line still stretching down the street.

"There are an awful lot of extremely angry people around here," she said. "It's an absolute scandal."

Watson said that the Electoral Commission would undertake a "thorough review" of the problems, and acknowledged that there may need to be a change in the law to redraw the rules.

Under British rules, voters must have been issued with a ballot paper by 10 p.m. to be allowed to vote. If they are too late, they are not permitted to vote.

"Clearly, Parliament will want to look at this and it may well be that the law will need to change," Watson said.

John Mothersole, a returning officer - in charge of the voting process - in Sheffield, said the northern English city had seen the highest level of voter turnout in 30 years. "It caught us out," he told the BBC.

Angry voters in Sheffield complained to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg - the lawmaker in the district - after they were turned away at polling centers.

Polls opened in Britain at 7am (6pm NZT) and closed at 10pm (9am Friday NZT).

- AP