London--Britain's political leaders ended their campaigns ahead of Thursday's general election, the most unpredictable in living memory, which could yield no clear winner and weeks of haggling over the next government.
A win for Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives would raise the risk of Britain exiting the European Union because he has promised a referendum on leaving the bloc by 2017.
But some business leaders and investors have warned that the main opposition Labour party, led by Ed Miliband, could be bad for the economy, which is weighed down by a budget deficit of nearly £90 billion (120 billion euros, $140 billion).
Final polling data released on the eve of the vote showed a rush of last-minute campaigning had failed to sway voters one way or another.
Three polls showed Labour and the Conservatives in a dead heat, while another three showed the Conservatives just one point ahead.
With neither expected to win outright and smaller parties on the rise, the election is also likely to underline the decline of traditional two-party politics in Britain and the rise of a more multi-lateral European style.
"This has been a remarkable election," Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics said, predicting that it would lead to some form of multi-party government "probably less stable than the one that formed in 2010."
The Conservatives have been in power in a coalition government with the centrist Liberal Democrats since the 2010 election.
But it is thought that a minority government supported on an informal basis by a smaller party or parties is more likely than a formal coalition, under which the Liberal Democrats have seen their support plummet in the last five years.
AFP
