VOTERS will go to the polls today in Britain's most exciting general election for 20 years, with the result likely to be in doubt until the dawn tomorrow – and, possibly, for many hours afterwards.

With the polls still pointing to a hung Parliament, all three leaders spent the last hours of the campaign criss-crossing the country in a final push for votes.

Conservative leader David Cameron vowed to "inspire people about a better government", while Gordon Brown said Labour was "fired with new determination". Nick Clegg, the Lib-Dem leader, warned that "nothing will really change" if Labour or the Tories won.

All eyes will be on the huge exit poll of 20,000 voters, to be released within minutes of the polls closing at 10pm tonight, to provide the first indication of what the nation has decided.

However, it is highly likely that the result will be unclear at least until almost half of the 650 results are declared between 3am and 5am tomorrow. Although the Tories have led almost throughout the four-week campaign, Mr Clegg's triumph in the first leaders' TV debate gave his party a turbo-boost and dashed Conservative hopes of a march to victory.