The winner, who will become the new head of the UK's Conservative Party and therefore the country’s prime minister, was chosen by all members of the party, which is around 200,000 people.
The voting ended as scheduled at 17:00 local time (16:00 GMT) on Friday, despite the fact that its start was postponed, due to a potential cyber threat. The UK Government Communications Headquarters warned that hackers could change ballots.
After consulting with the National Cyber Security Center, the party decided to increase security measures regarding the voting process, which led to a delay in the distribution of ballots to voters.
Under the new regulation, the voting in two ways, by mail and online, remained, but the unique code of each party member would be deactivated after voting. As a result, the party abandoned its original plan to allow its members to change their vote.
On July 7, Boris Johnson, who succeeded Theresa May as UK Prime Minister in 2019, announced that he was stepping down both as the prime minister and head of the UK's Conservative Party. UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss and former UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak are the two final candidates in the prime minister election race.