AFTER months of debate, today is the day when the people of Britain will make one of the most important decisions they will make for generations — whether to stay in or leave the EU.

Polling stations opened at 7am this morning and will close at 10pm tonight so don’t forget to cast your vote. People queuing at 10pm will still be allowed to vote.

Unlike at a general election, when MPs only need to win a majority in their constituency to win the seat, every vote will count. This means that the final results for leave and remain will creep up slowly as regions make their declaration. The final result will not be known until at least nine hours after the close of voting — so this will be around 7am tomorrow morning (Friday).

By now, if you’re registered to vote you will have received a polling card which identifies where your polling station is located. Postal voters should have received ballot papers about a week ago and made sure they were returned to their council by 10pm today.

Voters will be asked the question: ‘Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?’

You must put a cross in the box next to your choice of either: Remain a member of the European Union or Leave the European Union.

With polls largely neck and neck voters up and down the country will be on tenterhooks waiting for the results to be announced. The Electoral Commission is forecasting that the turnout could be as high as 80% —voting in the 2015 General Election was 66%.

At the close of the poll thousands of sealed boxes are collected from schools, church halls and community centres which have been doubling up as polling stations and transported to one of the 382 counting venues across the UK.

Results will be collated and fed by local counting officers to regional counting officers in 12 electoral regions. Sunderland hopes to be the first to declare its result as it always does with local and general elections. Wandsworth in South London is also boasting it will declare its result early.

The bulk of the results will come in during a busy two-hour period tomorrow morning, between 3am and 5am. The final result will be declared by Jenny Watson, the chairperson of the Electoral Commission and the referendum’s chief counting officer at Manchester Town Hall.

As the UK is the first member state to ever hold a national referendum on withdrawal from the European Union it is difficult to know exactly what will happen if voters back Brexit.

But if Britain does vote to leave the UK it will not happen straight away — there will be a two-year period of negotiations for ending the membership and Britain will begin lengthy talks to renegotiate EU agreements and build new trade links with Europe and the rest of the world.

It Britain votes to remain the status quo will stay but the country’s relationship with the EU is expected to change after Prime Minister David Cameron secured a deal during a key summit in Brussels earlier this year guaranteeing that Britain would have ‘special status’ within the EU and an option of an ‘emergency brake’ on the payment of in-work benefits to EU immigrants who come to the UK. The renegotiation also confirmed the right of member states to exclude people believed to pose a security risk — even if they have no previous convictions.

David Cameron is expected to make a statement tomorrow morning after the result becomes clear.