London (Agencies): Millions headed to the polls on Thursday to vote in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom (UK) to elect their members of Parliament to the lower chamber, the House of Commons, via the first-past-the-post system.
The polling started at 7am and will continue till 10pm local time (06:00 GMT to 21:00 GMT).
Labour Party, Conservative Party, Liberal Democrats, Reform UK, Scottish National Party (SNP), and the Green Party are the major parties in the country's political landscape.
However, the two that have dominated the political arena in the 20th and 21st century are the Conservatives and Labour.
The UK, 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.
Exit polls on Thursday at about 10pm (21:00 GMT) are likely to 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.
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.
To form a majority government, a party needs to win 326 seats.
According to a pre-poll survey, Labour Party leader Keir Starmer is projected to win a historic mandate against UK Prime Minister and Conservative Party leader Rishi Sunak.