Rishi Sunak topped the first round of elections to decide the next leader of the ruling Conservative Party. The leader will take over the reins of Prime Minister from Boris Johnson in September.
Rishi is the bookmakers’ favourite to win the election. He polled 88 votes to top the list of candidates in the first round. Two candidates who got the least votes and were eliminated from the race are Jeremy Hunt who polled 18 votes and Nadhim Zahawi who polled 25 votes.
Rishi Sunak resigned as chancellor last week and is expected to be one of the last two candidates in the fray. The final two candidates will be decided by July 21 through more rounds to eliminate those with the least votes.
The winner among the last two candidates will be decided through postal votes by over 160,000 members of the party, in a process that will take place in the coming months.
