Millions of British voters are going to the polls today to cast their votes in the United Kingdom general election.
Voters started casting their votes early morning across the UK. The polling statiosn will open untill late in the night.
Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservatives and Ed Miliband’s opposition Labour Party have been neck and neck in opinion polls for months, indicating neither will win enough seats for an outright majority in the 650-seat parliament.
“This race is going to be the closest we have ever seen,” Miliband told supporters in Pendle, in northern England, on the eve of the vote. “It is going to go down to the wire.”
Cameron said only his Conservatives could deliver strong, stable government: “All other options will end in chaos.” The Conservatives portray themselves as the party of jobs and economic recovery, promising to reduce income tax for 30 million people while forcing through further spending cuts to eliminate a budget deficit still running at 5 percent of gross domestic product.
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 50 million people registered to vote.
As well as the general election, there are more than 9,000 council seats being contested across 279 English local authorities.
Labour says it would cut the deficit each year, raise income tax for the highest 1 percent of earners and defend the interests of hard-pressed working families and the treasured but financially stretched national health service.
If neither wins an overall majority, talks will begin on Friday with smaller parties in a race to strike deals. That could lead to a formal coalition, like the one Cameron has led for the past five years with the centrist Liberal Democrats.
Or it could produce a fragile minority government making trade-offs to guarantee support on key votes. British stock and bond prices were moderately higher on the final trading day before polling, with election jitters still failing to register any significant investor selling.
