London: The United Kingdom will hold its first national election in almost five years on Thursday.
The United Kingdom, which consists of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, has a population of about 67 million and has the sixth-largest economy in the world.
Polling stations across the UK will be open on July 4 from 7am to 10pm local time (06:00 GMT to 21:00 GMT).
Exit polls on Thursday at about 10pm (21:00 GMT) will give a snapshot of where voters stand, with a handful of results being announced before midnight while most constituency results are expected in the early hours of Friday.
Voters in 650 constituencies across the UK will elect members of Parliament to the lower chamber, the House of Commons, via the first-past-the-post system.
There are several political parties in the UK, however, the two that have dominated the political arena in the 20th and 21st century are the Conservatives and Labour.
The Conservative party has been in power for the past 14 years, appointing five different prime ministers.
The last Labour government was led by Gordon Brown, who led the UK from 2007 to 2010.
