News Analysis: Exit poll points to Conservative victory in general election at expense of coalition partner

An exit poll of voters in the British general election has predicted victory for the Conservatives by a surprisingly large margin, as they won over a number of votes from the centrist Liberal Democrat party.

The Liberal Democrats are down about 16-17 seats from polls taken before the vote, with almost all of those seats going to the Conservatives.

The exit poll, carried out by major British broadcasters and released just after the polls shut, predicted that the Conservatives would win the election with 316 seats, just short of the 326 they need for a majority government.

This is a considerably better result for the Conservatives than polls throughout the campaign predicted.

The exit poll is not favorable for the main challenger party, the Labor Party, which would trail on 239 seats, and is disastrous for the Liberal Democrats, who are predicted to be left with just 10 seats, down from their 57 in the 2010-15 parliament.

"There is still some room for doubt (about the exit poll) but it looks like it has been a late surge for the Tories, and the Tories have, essentially, eviscerated the Liberal Democrats who are almost going to cease to exist," said Patrick Dunleavy, a professor from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

If the polls are correct, it means that the existence of the Liberal Democrats is in severe jeopardy, said Dunleavy.

The Liberal Democrats, whose leader Nick Clegg is currently the deputy prime minister, possesses considerable power after forming a coalition government with the Conservatives after the 2010 general election.

Clegg said it had been a "cruel and punishing night" for his party.

However, there is still doubt over the exit poll.

"In the past, exit polls have made mistakes," Dunleavy said, "In 1992 the exit poll suggested the election was too close to call, but in fact the Conservatives won."

Dunleavy said that the grounds for skepticism might be that the Liberal Democrats have been fighting a campaign to keep themselves alive in 25-30 constituencies where they had sitting Members of Parliament, who could rely on very localized support which would not show up in an exit poll.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is the leader of the Conservatives, said it was too early to predict the result of the election.

Cameron is keeping his seat in the Witney constituency having garnered 35,291 votes, while his closest rival from the Labour Party got 10,046 votes. Endi