General election: Nomination day marks start of final countdown

Nominations for the UK general election closed at 4pm on Thursday, starting the final countdown to polling day, with a record number of candidates from smaller parties entering the fray.

With the final list of candidates now in place, local councils will next week begin sending out postal vote packs to those who have requested them - meaning that some people will cast their vote within days.

The UK Independence party said it would field candidates in almost every one of the 650 seats up for grabs - barring a few seats in Northern Ireland. "It's our largest slate of candidates ever - by a mile," a party spokesman said.

Meanwhile, the Greens said they expected to have 566 candidates fighting the 632 seats in mainland Britain, a record for the party.

The Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition (TUSC), a leftwing party which hopes to take votes from Labour, will stand in over 130 seats, also a record.

The patchwork of parties fighting the election has added to its unpredictability although the two big parties - Labour and the Conservatives - are starting to exert a squeeze.

A poll this week by Lord Ashcroft, the Tory peer, taken in 10 marginal Conservative seats found that Ukip and Green support had fallen, with voters indicating they will switch to parties with a realistic chance of winning the election.

The Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats, who are all expected to field a full slate of candidates in mainland Britain, will launch their party manifestos next week as the campaign enters its most intense stage.

There has been a steady increase in the take-up of postal voting in Britain since 2000 when the option was made available to all, meaning that for many voters polling day comes well before the May 7 election.

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At the last election, 29.7m valid votes were cast in the UK general election, an overall turnout of 65.1 per cent, compared with a 61.4 per cent turnout in the previous election in 2005.

Turnout varied quite significantly between constituencies: the lowest turnout was in Manchester Central (44 per cent), while the highest turnout was in East Renfrewshire (77 per cent).

Ipsos MORI, the pollsters, concluded that, at the last election, participation appeared to be highest among older voters, with three-quarters of people aged 55 or over saying that they had voted, compared with only 44 per cent of those aged 18-24.

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