MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Decision day as Britons go to polls

Voters have started to go to the polls in the General Election which will decide whether Tony Blair wins a historic third term for Labour.

Polling stations opened at 7am, with the electorate having until 10pm to cast their votes - and the first results expected around 11.30pm.

After a month trailing the length and breadth of the country in the quest for votes, the three main party leaders know their fate now lies in the hands of the electorate.

Mr Blair, Tory leader Michael Howard and Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy are set to cast their own votes in their constituencies.

Labour has led the opinion polls throughout the campaign - the final batch of eve-of-polling day surveys putting it between three and six points ahead of the Conservatives.

However both the main parties have been saying that the outcome will be closer than the polls are suggesting, with Labour facing a tough fight to hold many of its key marginal seats where the election will be decided.

The Conservatives believe they can take many of the seats where Labour has only a small majority while the Liberal Democrats are also predicting that their opposition to the Iraq war will see them make big gains.

In the end turnout could be crucial. The last General Election in 2001 saw a turnout of 59% - the lowest since the troops returned home in 1918 at the end of the First World War - and there are concerns that there could be a similarly depressed vote this time around.

There are fears among Labour strategists that disaffected supporters, unhappy over the Iraq war, could simply stay at home or cast a protest vote for the Liberal Democrats.

The uncertainty over the result has been heightened by the large numbers of undecided voters, with the final opinion polls suggesting more than one in four may have yet to make up their minds.