The first voters in Oxfordshire arrived at polling stations from 7am today.

With many predicting the closest General Election result in a generation, all parties were hoping that the uncertainty of the outcome and the televised leaders’ debates will ensure a high turnout.

Conservative Party leader David Cameron is expected to be among the morning voters. Mr Cameron, who is defending his seat in Witney, is expected to cast his vote in his constituency at a polling station near his home in west Oxfordshire, along with his wife, Samantha.

The events at the count in Witney’s Windrush Leisure Centre tonight will be followed by millions of viewers as the nation waits to see what befalls the man who by tomorrow morning could be the United Kingdom’s new Prime Minister.

But all the main parties will also be closely following events when the votes are counted in Oxford tonight.

Voters in the city have added incentive to head for the polling stations, with both Oxford East and the Oxford West and Abingdon constituencies viewed as key marginal seats.

Residents in Oxford will also go to the polls to have their say on who runs the city.

Oxford City Council, the authority for housing, rubbish, car parks, and leisure services, is also holding elections today.

Half the city council is up for election, one seat in each of the city’s 24 wards. The count for city wards will take place tomorrow, starting at 2pm.

The political balance on the council is delicate, with no single party enjoying an overall majority since 2004.

Other district councils will be holding elections.

Cherwell District Council will see 17 seats being contested and West Oxfordshire 16 seats.

Six parliamentary seats are being contested in the county: Oxford East; Oxford West and Abingdon; Witney, Wantage, Banbury and Henley. Polling stations will be open until 10pm tonight.

  • A poll of some genuine floating voters must be one of the strangest means of predicting the result of the election.

City-based charity Pond Conservation has been taking a daily survey at a secret location near the city — and measuring the changing political mood of the tadpole population.

Its innovative ‘Tad Poll’ was the brainchild of Jeremy Biggs, the charity’s director.

He said: “The logos of each political party were put in the pond. We take a photograph and then count the number of tadpoles above each logo.

“The poll has the Conservatives in the lead followed by Labour and the Lib Dems.”