Britons Go to the Polls in National Election

Today’s vote in the United Kingdom is expected to be the state’s closest election in decades. The most recent opinion polls showed Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives and Ed Miliband's opposition Labour Party neck and neck. A total of 650 Westminster MPs will be elected, with about 50 million people registered to vote.

In the likelihood that neither party wins an overall majority, party leaders will look to cobble together a coalition government. A group of smaller parties have risen to prominence in recent years, including the Scottish National Party (SNP), Liberal Democrats, the anti-European Union UK Independence Party, and the Greens, among others.

The SNP, in particular, may play an outsized role in determining future leadership. The UK’s third-largest political party, the SNP continues to push for Scottish independence, which is politically unpopular elsewhere in the United Kingdom. Miliband has ruled out working with the nationalists, though an alliance with SNP is likely to be Labour’s easiest path to a coalition