Britain's UK Independence Party was hoping yesterday that its local election success is replicated in the European Parliament polls as commentators said Nigel Farage's group had broken the three-party mould.
The anti-EU, anti-immigration party immediately began targeting seats in the national parliament at the May 2015 general election after taking votes from the Conservatives, their Liberal Democrat coalition partners and the Labour opposition alike.
Elections for some local councils in England and Northern Ireland were held on Thursday alongside the European parliament vote -- the results of which will be announced today.
Farage warned the main parties he would "see them in Westminster", the British parliament, as his rivals tried to make the best of their performance at the polls, and braced for more of the same in the European vote.
Despite his party having no seats in parliament, Farage has led UKIP from a fringe party to become a standard-bearer for the eurosceptic movement across the continent.
The Guardian newspaper called the results a "small earthquake in England", saying the populist UKIP had proven it could take votes off Conservatives in their southern heartlands and Labour in the north.
"It was the election that broke the mould," it said, judging that with no single party securing a third of the votes, another hung parliament loomed on the horizon.
Turnout in the local polls were a relatively weak 36 percent according to initial estimates. A projected national share of the vote in a Britain-wide election suggested that Labour would have got 31 percent, ahead of the Conservatives on 29 percent with UKIP on 17 percent and the Liberal Democrats on 13 percent.
The Times newspaper said the results confirmed that voters were fed up with mainstream parties, with none enjoying appeal in every part of the country.