Voters are preparing to head to the polls on June 8 for the snap General Election, with a result expected in the early hours of the following morning.
Polling stations will be open for people to cast their votes from 7am to 10pm on the day of the election.
An exit poll published by news broadcasters at 10pm will give an indication of the result. The survey is carried out at polling stations across the UK on the day.
Counting begins after polling stations close and takes place throughout the night with the first seat usually declared before midnight. Sunderland is usually the first area to declare a result and has been for the last six general elections.
If it is a clear victory for one party, the final result can be predictable at about 3am. All the latest polls have shown Theresa May’s Conservatives enjoying a lead over Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party.
The voting system is known as ‘first-past-the-post’. The candidate with the most votes in each of the 650 constituencies across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland becomes the MP for the area.
For a party to be able to form a Government and its leader to become Prime Minister, it needs to win more than half the seats in the House of Commons – 326. The party that wins the second largest number of seats becomes the main opposition party and its leader the ‘leader of the opposition’.
The results are reported in rolling media coverage throughout the night. Each local authority publishes the results for parliamentary constituencies in that area, while the Electoral Commission publishes the overall election results and the individual constituencies.
Counting can go on until the afternoon of the following day. St Ives is traditionally the last of the 650 constituencies across the UK to declare. The newly-elected Prime Minister is expected to meet the Queen later that day.
