Decision time: Britain goes to the polls
Voters in England, Wales and Scotland go to the polls today as a host of vital elections are held across the country.
Most polling stations are open from 07:00 BST to 22:00 BST.
In London, residents will decide whether Labour's Ken Livingstone or the Conservatives' Boris Johnson will win the keys to City Hall, after a long and sometimes bad-tempered campaign.
There will also be mayoral votes in Liverpool and Salford.
Ten English cities – including Bristol, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield – will hold referenda on whether to get their own elected mayors.
Doncaster borough council will be holding a referendum on whether to keep its existing mayoral system, which it adopted in 2001.
There will be local elections to 143 local authorities in England and all 32 councils in Scotland.
Twenty-one of the 22 local authorities in Wales will also hold elections, as will the London Assembly.
In total 14,472 candidates from across the country will discover their fates tonight and tomorrow.
There are 30 million people registered to vote in the elections, including 5,800,000 in London, 4,000,000 in Scotland and 2,300,000 in Wales.
politics.co.uk will be providing coverage of the local elections all the way through the night and into tomorrow afternoon, when a second wave of results come in.
