Clacton-on-Sea (United Kingdom) (AFP) - Voters cast their ballots Thursday in an English by-election pitting hard-right leader Nigel Farage – once touted as a potential future British prime minister – against perennial joke candidate Count Binface in a poll dismissed by some residents as a “farce”.

Farage, who triggered the vote by resigning the parliamentary seat he had held since 2024 over an investigation into his finances, is up against Binface and dozens of other fringe candidates in the Clacton constituency of eastern Essex.

The vote has been shunned by the country’s main political parties, including ruling Labour, as a stunt by the Reform UK leader to dodge scrutiny of his finances.

That has left candidates such as Binface – the alter ego of comedian Jon Harvey – to grab all the attention.

Analysts predict a win for Farage – but they also predict an uncomfortably large share of up to 20 percent of the votes going to the self-styled “intergalactic space warrior” from the fictional planet Sigma IX who wears a rubbish bin on his head.

“Bin day cometh,” Binface posted on X earlier Thursday. He had not so far been spotted in Clacton since the polls opened.

The boycott left some voters in the town of Clacton-on-Sea fuming.

“It’s a farce,” said local voter Paul, in his 50s, who accused mainstream parties of “disrespecting the people of Clacton” by not running candidates.

Just a few “I’m with Farage” signs were visible in Clacton, and plenty of other locals – even some volunteers for the anti-immigration Reform – branded the polls a joke.

“It’s a bit ridiculous,” party campaigner Jane Embelton told AFP.

“It’s all to make Nigel Farage look like an idiot, basically. But he doesn’t look like an idiot to me or his supporters.”

A record 33 fringe candidates including Binface were running. At one polling station a sample ballot paper with the lengthy list of contenders hanging at the entrance was taller than most voters, an AFP journalist saw.

Polling sites close at 10:00 pm (2100 GMT), with counting beginning immediately and a result expected by around 7:00 am Friday.

- ‘We can’t decide’ -

Farage, whose party had topped national polls for 18 months before falling behind recently, surprised voters when he announced his resignation on July 7 amid the probe into his finances.

The investigation by the parliamentary sleaze watchdog is examining allegations he and Reform’s deputy, Richard Tice, failed to declare financial gifts. They deny any wrongdoing.

Farage has framed Thursday’s vote as “the people of Clacton versus the Establishment”, aimed at thwarting the “stitch-up” over his finances.

“The people of Clacton should be the judges of my actions,” he said in a video released hours before casting his vote.

Clacton voter Phil predicted Thursday was “not going to change anything”, noting if Farage won as expected, the parliamentary probe would restart.

“I get what he’s saying, but we can’t decide,” he told AFP.

Political pundits have downplayed the vote’s wider significance in a constituency that overwhelmingly backed Brexit a decade ago.

“It will be astonishing if Farage were not to win,” political scientist John Curtice told AFP.

But some assessed Farage’s election gambit had backfired as his Reform party slips down national polls.

“Farage’s plan to turn this by-election into a serious political battle failed,” Queen Mary University of London politics professor Stijn van Kessel told AFP, noting the resulting spectacle “makes Farage look rather silly”.

- ‘We can’t decide’ -

Farage netted 46 percent of the vote in the 2024 general election to become an MP on his eighth attempt.

Turnout – nearly 59 percent then – could be significantly down Thursday among the constituency’s 80,000 registered voters, given the lack of mainstream party candidates.

The probe into Farage, which paused when he resigned, relates to a five million pound ($6.7 million) donation from cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne.

Meanwhile, London police have confirmed starting a investigation last year into donations to Reform before the 2024 election.

UK media have reported that probe concerns non-declared financial support from longtime Farage ally and convicted fraudster George Cottrell and his mother.

The controversies have coincided with the drop in Reform polling support and in popularity for Farage, long a divisive figure loved and loathed in largely equal measure.