LATEST: Millions of voters are going to the polls across the UK.
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After six weeks of campaigning and debate, people have been casting their vote at around 50,000 polling stations.
Conservative leader David Cameron and his wife Samantha voted in the village of Spelsbury in Oxfordshir.
Polls
close at 22:00 BST with results from the first constituencies expected
before midnight and the final result due on Friday afternoon.
As well as the general election, there are more than 9,000 council seats being contested across 279 English local authorities.
Mayors will also be elected in Bedford, Copeland, Leicester, Mansfield, Middlesbrough and Torbay.
UKIP
leader Nigel Farage, Labour leader Ed Miliband, Greens leader Natalie
Bennett, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon, Conservative leader David Cameron,
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood have
all cast their votes.
Labour Party leader Ed Miliband and his wife Justine walk to the polling station at Sutton Village Hall in Doncaster.
In Northern Ireland DUP leader Peter
Robinson and Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness in Northern Ireland have
voted, as have SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell, Alliance Party leader
David Ford and Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt.
Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg and his wife Miriam Gonzalez Durantez outside a polling station in Sheffiel.
Results declared
A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 50 million people registered to vote.
The weather has been dry and mild across much of the UK, with isolated showers in some parts of the north of England.
UKIP leader Nigel Farage cast his vote at a polling station in Ramsgate in Kent.
The
local votes taking place mean that nearly every voter in England -
excluding London where there are no local elections - will have been
given at least two ballot papers when they enter polling stations.
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon voted with her husband Peter Murrell, at Broomhouse Community Hall in Glasgow.
Some
votes had been cast before Thursday through postal voting, which
accounted for 15% of the total electorate at the 2010 general election,
when the overall turnout was 65%.
For the first time, people have been able to register to vote online.
Natalie Bennett, leader of the Green Party, leaves a polling station in London
For the first time, people have been able to register to vote online.
Most polling stations are in schools, community centres and parish
halls, but pubs, a launderette and a school bus are also being used.
Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood arrives to vote at a polling station in Penygraig in Rhondda.
Coverage
Polls close at 22:00 BST, but officials say anyone in a polling station queue at this time should be able to cast their vote.
The BBC's main election programme, fronted by David Dimbleby, starts at 21:55 BST, with live coverage from 220 counts.
Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland will have their own overnight programmes but will join Huw Edwards from 07:00 BST on 8 May.
Full
coverage of the results as they come in will be on Olajuwon Obalola's blog,with all the big breaking
stories from around the country and analysis by correspondents.
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