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A8 WORLD NEWS
Wednesday 30 OctOber 2019

Early elections in UK have mixed fortunes for key parties

By TAMER FAKAHANY Asso- all quarters as she negotiat- Edward Heath to call an
ciated Press ed Britain's exit from the EU, early election as he sought
LONDON (AP) — After more called an election to fortify a mandate to battle the
than three years of Brexit her position both at home strikers. A hung parliament
stasis, stalemate, gridlock and abroad. It backfired resulted.
and increasingly toxic di- spectacularly. Throughout The Labour Party's Harold
vide since the United King- the campaign, May re- Wilson became leader for
dom narrowly voted to peated a mantra that she another spell after his stint
leave the European Union, offered "strong and stable" in the 1960s and he then
another general election is leadership. It would come called an early election just
on the cards. to haunt her. six months later in October
But will it break the parlia- The election resulted in a 1974 to gain a majority.
mentary impasse and how hung parliament. May had He was successful. But the
will a frustrated and ex- lost the majority and so be- years that followed after he
hausted electorate vote? gan a two-year slide to her stepped down in 1976 were
Early elections in Britain In this June 9, 2017 file photo, British Prime Minister Theresa May eventual departure with a weighed down by public
have had mixed fortunes listens as the declaration at her constituency is made for in the failed legacy. Another of sector trade union strikes
for key parties in the past. general election in Maidenhead, England. her phrases, "Brexit means that affected day-to-day
THERESA MAY'S DOWN- Associated Press Brexit" became consigned life for millions. This "Winter
WARD SPIRAL IN 2017 to the dustbins of recent of Discontent" paved the
An embattled Prime Minis- tive Party majority from the pro-Brexit Tories in his own British history. way for Margaret Thatcher
ter May called for an early 2015 election but tainted party. He was wrong by a HAROLD WILSON'S GAMBIT to return a more hard-line
election in 2017, just under by the ignominy of los- small but punishing margin IN 1974 and right-wing Tory party to
a year after she took over ing the EU referendum. with years of painful fallout The political atmosphere in power in 1979.
from David Cameron. Cameron gambled that for all concerned to follow. 1974 was beset with a min- JOHNSON VS CORBYN AND
Cameron stepped down, the country wouldn't vote As premier, the unelected ers' strike that forced then OTHERS IN 2019
with a sizeable Conserva- "leave" and he could quell May, feeling the heat from Conservative Prime Minister And, so to the now. q

Egypt arrests train conductor after youth jumps to his death

off a moving train, leading refused," after which he massive explosion when
to the death of one of the opened a carriage door an unmanned locomotive
youths, has been arrested, for them to jump. Prosecu- slammed into a barrier in-
authorities said Tuesday. tor Mohammed el-Feki on side Cairo's bustling central
The incident, which took Tuesday ordered the con- train station.
place Monday in the Nile ductor to remain in custody That accident led to the
Delta town of Tanta, has for four days pending an in- resignation of Transporta-
stirred public outrage. vestigation. tion Minister Hisham Arafar
Footage of an ensuing ar- Just hours later, at least and the appointment of
gument between the con- four people were killed in el-Waizir, a career army of-
ductor and other passen- a separate train accident ficer.
gers on the train went viral, Tuesday morning when a The country's deadli-
along with calls on social vehicle crashed into a train est train crash occurred
media for the resignation in the southern tourist city of in 2002, when over 300
of Egypt's Transportation Luxor, authorities said. Four people died after a fire
In this Oct. 23, 2018 file photo, people wait for the train to pass Minister Kamel el-Wazir. others were injured. erupted on a speeding
in Shubra, Cairo, Egypt. The other youth who was Egypt's railway system has a train traveling from Cairo
Associated Press forced to jump off the train history of badly maintained to southern Egypt. The lat-
was injured. equipment and poor man- est official figures show that
By SAMY MAGDY tian train conductor who Railway authorities said the agement. 1,793 train accidents took
Associated Press forced two poor street ven- conductor demanded the In February, at least 25 place across the country in
CAIRO (AP) — An Egyp- dors without tickets to jump youths "pay tickets but they people were killed in a 2017.q