Britain goes to the polls on Thursday in what has become a three-way race between Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, at least in terms of the popular vote.
The big surprise of this election is the increase in support for the Liberal Democrats, led by Nick Clegg, who seems to have struck a chord with the electorate.
The Liberal Democrats' surge in the opinion polls has been attributed to Clegg's performances in the televised debates between the three party leaders, a first for Britain.
Voters in the UK are not used to seeing the three main party leaders debating on an equal platform; they are accustomed to the Prime Minister and the leader of the Opposition - who, since 1945 have always been Labour or Conservative - facing each other in the House of Commons with the Liberal Democrats on the fringes of the debate.
This time, however, the electorate has been treated to a three-way debate between Gordon Brown, David Cameron and Nick Clegg and many voters liked what they heard from the Liberal Democrat leader.
Besides having good presentation skills, Clegg has also portrayed himself as being the best suited candidate to clean up the country's political system and move away from "politics as usual", and this has been well received by an electorate still fuming over the MPs expenses scandal.
The polls have more or less been showing support for the Conservatives at 33 per cent, the Liberal Democrats at 30 per cent and Labour at 28 per cent. If these figures remain unchanged on election day it is very likely that no one party will obtain an overall majority of seats, and the result would be a hung Parliament.
In terms of the popular vote, such an outcome would be the Liberal Democrats best post-war result while for Labour the result would be almost as bad as the1983 poll when it received 27.6 per cent of the vote - its worst performance since 1918. Ironically, however, due to Britain's disproportionate electoral system, under such a popular vote scenario the Labour Party would probably end up as the largest party in Parliament with 275 seats, followed by the Conservatives with 245 seats and the Liberal Democrats with 99 seats.
Britain's electoral system very much favours the two main parties, at the expense of the Liberal Democrats, but it also favours Labour more than the Conservatives. In the 'first-past-the-post' or 'winner-takes-all' electoral system the candidate with the largest number of votes - the size of the majority does not matter - wins the constituency for his party.
Because both Labour's and the Conservatives' support tends to be concentrated in particular parts of Britain, it is easier for them to win seats than the Liberal Democrats, whose support is spread evenly throughout most of the country.
In 1983 for example, the SDP/Liberal Alliance (today's Liberal Democrats) got 25.4 per cent of the vote, but only 23 seats, while Labour, which got 27.6 per cent of the vote ended up with 209 seats.
Furthermore, while the Conservatives tend to win many of their seats with huge majorities, Labour tends to win more constituencies than the Conservatives, but with small majorities.
This explains why the Conservatives can win more votes but fewer seats than Labour. This happened in the February 1974 election when Labour got 37.2 per cent of the vote and 301 seats while the Conservatives got 37.9 per cent of the vote and 297 seats, leading to the formation of a Labour minority government led by Harold Wilson.
If there is to be a hung Parliament, Brown is not obliged to resign, and he will no doubt try and form a parliamentary alliance or perhaps even a coalition with the Liberal Democrats.
However, should Labour come third in the popular vote it will be politically very difficult for Brown to remain in Downing Street, and Clegg has made this very clear. If the Liberal Democrats do reach an agreement with Labour, they would inevitably demand electoral reform but they could also insist that Brown be replaced by a new Labour leader, although the electorate might not react too positively to another 'unelected' Prime Minister.
Although the Conservatives have been consistently leading in the polls and Cameron was judged to have won the second and third television debates, the swing towards the Conservatives seems not to be strong enough to give them an overall majority.
Is a Conservative - Liberal Democrat alliance feasible? Anything is possible in politics but the Liberal Democrats are mush closer to Labour than they are to the Conservatives so I very much doubt such a scenario.
This election is one of the most interesting in the post-war period. It is genuinely a three-way race and the dominant issues are the economy, public services, immigration and to a lesser extent crime and defence.
Ultimately the deciding factor will be which party is best suited to tackle Britain's huge budget deficit while stimulating economic growth and continuing to invest in public services such as health, education and the police.