Thursday, May 5 2005 12:28 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Polling began on a dull note in 645 Parliamentary constituencies in Britain today (May 5, 2005) with four latest opinion polls projecting a historic third term victory for Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Labour party.

Of the 44,180,243 registered voters, a record six million people have opted to cast their vote by post.

The election has been postponed in one constituency, Staffordshire South, following the death of one of the candidates.

Along with voting in 645 Parliamentary constituencies, elections will take place in 34 county councils and three unitary authorities. There are also four mayoral contests.

Voting will take place from 07:00 hrs local time (11:30 hrs IST) to 10:00 hrs IST (02:30 hrs IST) and counting of votes will take place immediately thereafter.

In the 2001 General Elections, Labour had romped home with 412 seats, Conservative 166 and Liberal Democrat 52.

Four opinion polls published in national newspapers today gave Labour leads of between 3 and 6 per cent over the Conservatives. But Blair was determined to ensure that Labour supporters did not take his victory for granted insisting today's election would be a close contest.

"This thing is tight and it is tough and we have got to fight for every vote," he told his supporters last night (Mat 4, 2005).

"There's no majority assumed at all at the moment," he added.