Polls open in Britain's knife-edge national election
By Associated Press
May 7, 2015 1:00 AM CDT
Ballot boxes are tallied and stored ready for delivery to polling stations for Thursday's General Election vote at the Newtownards Electoral office in Co. Down Northern Ireland, Wednesday May 6, 2015. Britain goes to the polls on Thursday in one of the most unpredictable General Election's in decades....   (Associated Press)

LONDON (AP) — Polls have opened in Britain's national election, a contest that is expected to produce an ambiguous result, a period of frantic political horse-trading and a bout of national soul-searching.

Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives and Ed Miliband's Labour Party are running neck-and-neck, and neither looks able to win a majority of Parliament's 650 seats.

Many voters are turning elsewhere — chiefly to the separatist Scottish National Party, which will dominate north of the border, and the anti-immigrant U.K. Independence Party. UKIP is third in opinion polls but Britain's electoral system means it can win at most a handful of seats.

If no party wins outright, it may take days or weeks of negotiation to forge a workable government.

Polls are open Thursday from 7 a.m. (0600GMT) until 10 p.m. (2100GMT).