Voting for the European parliament has been under way in parts of Europe since Thursday, but voters will have to wait before the result starts to emerge.

Britain and the Netherlands have voted. Ireland and the Czech Republic started on Friday. Three countries join the game on Saturday and the rest on Sunday.

Exit polls have been published in the Netherlands, but under EU law official results may only be given from 2100 GMT on Sunday, after voting is over.

The rule is supposed to prevent the result in, say, early-voting Britain influencing the choice of Italians, who will be the last to cast their ballots.

Sunday 1500 GMT

Austria will publish "national estimates" at 5:00 pm Vienna time (1500 GMT), followed an hour later by Germany and a handful of other countries.

In France, a provisional result based on an official ballot sample will be released at 1800 GMT.

Sunday 1815 GMT

From 8:15 pm Brussels time, the European Parliament will give its first estimate of the global picture, but observers will have to remain cautious.

The aggregate results will at this stage be based on a mixture of extrapolations from partial results and exit polls, and cover only 12 of 28 member states.

The estimate will evolve over the course of the evening.

Sunday 2115 GMT

From 11:00 pm in Brussels, official provisional results will start to emerge, in some countries - like Germany - faster than others.

At 11:15 pm the Parliament will publish a "projection", which will probably be seen as fairly accurate, but will still be far from final.

In Britain, for example, despite voting having taken place on Thursday, the ballot boxes will not even be opened not the count begun until 2200 GMT.

Definitive results will only emerge over the coming days, but party leaders and national leaders will meet in Brussels on Tuesday to take stock.

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