Time to decide - Britain braces for a dead heat

UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage was in the headlines for saying immigrants made him late for a meeting. Photo / AP

Power-scramble looms as polls show Tories and Labour too close to call.

After a bitter, bruising and fragmented six-week election campaign, British voters voted overnight, knowing only one thing with near certainty: nobody is going to win.

Or, at least, polls suggest that no one will win in the way elections are usually decided in British politics, with one party claiming a majority in Parliament and a mandate to run the country.

Instead, today's results could set off a mad scramble for power this weekend as parties joust for position with the public, cobble together alliances with sworn enemies and seek to exploit ambiguities in a set of procedures for determining who governs Britain that could be put to the test as never before.

At the end of it all, Conservative incumbent David Cameron or Labour challenger Ed Miliband will emerge as prime minister.

Final polls showed Labour and the Conservatives in a dead heat.

The two main parties have been neck-and-neck for much of the campaign and the opinion polls indicated that last-minute campaigning to win over undecided voters had failed to sway the race one way or another.

One polling company, Comres, found that up to one in four of those likely to vote were still undecided or could change their minds.

On the last day of campaigning yesterday, as candidates sprinted around the country in a final appeal for votes, the post-election jockeying was already in full swing.

Cameron warned on BBC radio that Miliband was planning a "con trick" to claim power even if Labour did not win the most seats.

Miliband continued to insist that his party would govern on its own terms, although it will almost certainly need the backing of the Scottish National Party to oust Cameron.

Immigration has long been an explosive topic in the United Kingdom and has ranked among the top three campaign issues, with the economy and the National Health Service.

Many embattled immigrants feel they are being blamed for everything. But some have been pushing back.

The faces of immigrants have popped up at subway, bus and rail stations in a crowd-funded "I am an immigrant" poster campaign aimed at changing the tenor of the debate on immigration.

"The media and politicians try to blame us for all the illness in Britain. Enough is enough," said Lukasz Belina, a 28-year-old Polish firefighter and proud resident of Scotland, explaining his motivation to appear in the poster campaign.

On his bright yellow poster, the firefighter writes: "For 7 years I have been saving lives, and your life could be saved next."

All major parties have addressed immigration, many urging tighter border controls and benefit restrictions.

Britain's population grew significantly under the last Labour Government, partly due to the expansion of the European Union. Pressure groups say the numbers are placing unsustainable pressure on public resources like hospitals and schools.

The leader of the anti-immigration UK Independence Party (Ukip), Nigel Farage, has made headlines for saying that foreigners with HIV put pressure on the health system and that he was once late for a meeting because of a traffic jam caused by immigrants.

Cameron has come under fire for breaking his pledge five years ago to reduce net immigration to less than 100,000. The latest figures show it is 298,000. But he has repeated he would aim to bring it down as promised and would hold a referendum on Britain's EU membership.

Miliband has said his party had previously "got it wrong" on immigration and that it needed to be controlled.

But immigrants are not just the political scapegoats of the election campaign - they are also an important constituency.

A report by Migrants' Rights Network says nearly four million eligible voters in England and Wales were born in another country.

He's with Tory supporters at a Cameron rally in Carlisle, but this boy's vote goes to Thomas the Tank Engine. Photo / AP

Going off script

Getting pumped
After criticism for being too laid back, PM David Cameron showed some passion. "If I'm getting lively about it, it's because I feel bloody lively about it," he said. Ed Miliband had his own strong language: "Am I tough enough? Hell, yes, I'm tough enough."

Brain fade
After leaving long silences in a radio interview on housing policy, Green Party leader Natalie Bennett said she'd suffered "brain fade".

West Ham or Aston Villa?
In a speech, Cameron said his favourite football team was West Ham United, after previously saying it was Aston Villa. Critics accused him of insincerity; Cameron blamed a Bennett-like "brain fade".

Bacon sarnie
Miliband's awkwardness was lampooned in a much reproduced photo of him eating a bacon sandwich. Twitter was flooded with pictures of supporters messily eating food in solidarity. The Sun headline read. "In 48 hours he could do the same to Britain. Save our bacon. Don't swallow his porkies, keep him out."

Unbreakable
Mocked as his "Moses moment", Miliband engraved his six key campaign pledges in a 2.5m stone monument as proof he would keep his promises. A top aide said: "I don't think anyone is suggesting the fact he's carved them into stone means that he will absolutely, you know, not going to break them."

SNP posturing?
SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon insists her MPs will vote to keep Cameron out of office, but a leaked memo suggests she wants him to stay. A Cameron win might mean another referendum on Scottish independence.

Q&A: What happens next?

If no one gets a majority, who will be the British Prime Minister tomorrow?
David Cameron. Constitutional rules and tradition say that the incumbent Prime Minister stays in office until a new government is formed. That means the Cameron family stay in Downing St for a while too.

What are the politics of a hung Parliament?
It is likely that both Cameron and Ed Miliband will make early claims to the right to form a government. If the results go as most expect, Cameron will argue that as the leader of the biggest party, he has the right to attempt to govern. Miliband will argue that there is an anti-Conservative majority in the Commons that would mean any Cameron-led government would fail, meaning that Cameron should resign.

Who would be right?
There is no clear answer in the constitution. As the incumbent, Cameron would have the right to make the first attempt to form a government that can command the confidence of the Commons. But the rules also say that if it's clear that he cannot win a Commons vote, he should go quickly.

How would the row be resolved?
One way would be for senior civil servants and advisers to the Queen to privately make it clear that the Sovereign was not convinced that one of the claims to govern was valid. But such officials would be extremely wary of intervening in a row between politicians. A far more likely resolution would come from within the big parties. Will Tory MPs continue to support Cameron if he is seen to be clinging to office with no real chance of assembling a Commons majority? And would Labour MPs back Miliband in trying to become prime minister despite coming second in the election and with the support of Scottish National Party MPs?

When will we know what the parties think?
The first signs will come from individual MPs, but most will spend the weekend discussing the results with colleagues before returning to Westminster on Monday.

Is there any deadline for sorting out the mess?
Parliament is due to return on May 28, when someone should present a Queen's Speech to MPs for their approval. But the date is not set in stone, and if a convincing government has not emerged from the post-election power-games, the speech could be delayed.

- Washington Post-Bloomberg, AFP, Telegraph Group Ltd