It’s here! Here is a round-up of what to look out for on polling day:
Leaders
Following his tour across London, Wales, the north-west and Yorkshire yesterday, Gordon Brown will be spending polling day in his home seat of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. After his 24-hour campaign tour of the UK David Cameron will defend his seat in the Oxfordshire constituency of Witney, whilst Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg will defend his Sheffield Hallam seat.
In the Media
Sky, the BBC and ITV will announce a joint exit poll as polls close at 10pm.
ITV’s epic Election 2010 coverage will run throughout the night (9.55pm until 6am on 7 May), and will be hosted by Alastair Stewart and Julie Etchingham. The coverage will also feature Conservative Party MP Ann Widdecombe, who is standing down, the former home secretary John Reid for Labour and former Lib Dem leader Paddy Ashdown. Mary Nightingale will host the ITV Election Night Party overlooking Westminster.
Election night coverage on BBC One will be hosted by David Dimbleby, with Jeremy Paxman questioning the politicians and Nick Robinson giving his analysis. Andrew Neil will hold live interviews with politicans, and Fiona Bruce will be bringing news updates. Jeremy Vine and Emily Maitlis will be taking a closer look at the seat-by-seat detail of how Britain is voting, and will also be joined by YouGov president, Peter Kellner. (9.55pm). The BBC will also be projecting the number of seats won by the main parties on to St Stephen’s Tower, which houses Big Ben.
Sky News’s election night programme Decision Time will be hosted by political editor Adam Boulton at the Sky News Centre, with presenters Kay Burley, Jeremy Thompson and Anna Botting fronting the coverage from locations across the UK and tracking the party leaders (9pm). Eamonn Holmes and Dermot Murnaghan take over as the counts finish.
Radio 4’s Election Night 2010 will be hosted by James Naughtie and Carolyn Quinn (10pm).
If you think everyone else is just taking the whole thing too seriously, don’t miss Channel 4’s Alternative Election Night with David Mitchell, Jimmy Carr and Lauren Laverne (9pm) for a satirical take on proceedings.
Away from the campaign
Tony Blair will be celebrating his 57th birthday today. Earlier this week he rejected calls for Labour supporters to vote tactically and said that people should back the party they believe in.
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