As Britain goes to the polls, change is in the air (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde May 5, 2010, 13:41 GMT

London - 'Thank you for making politics more interesting,' Glynn Thomas told Liberal Party leader Nick Clegg on the campaign trail for what is billed Britain's most exciting - and unpredictable - general election in decades.

Clegg, 43, has the been the superstar of the 2010 campaign, electrifying voters with 'we can' promises of change borrowed from Barack Obama, to whom he has been compared.

The 'old parties,' tired and worn out, could not deliver the modern policies and constitutional changes required for the 21st century, Clegg has said of Labour and the Conservatives.

Change is a word that has been on everyone's lips in this election - including those of the 'old parties.' But while they were talking, the world around them has already been changing.

Surveys show that the refreshing tone of the campaign - fired up by three TV debates between party leaders with audience participation - has intrigued voters, especially the young, and could raise election turnout to levels not seen since the immediate postwar years.

The immediate issue that has gripped people's imagination is the prospect of a change in the voting system - from majority voting to proportional representation - a cause championed by Clegg's Liberals for obvious reasons of self-interest for decades.

'Britain now has a historic opportunity to end our unfair and discredited voting system forever. It must not be missed,' the liberal Independent newspaper said across its front page Wednesday.

But, more importantly, the 'Clegg factor,' which has brought a steep rise in the Liberals' popularity at the expense of the two main parties, has fuelled predictions of an inconclusive election outcome.

A series of polls has shown that the result could be a hung parliament - a situation where none of the big parties has an overall majority - forcing them to consider a coalition government - a fundamental change from the two party-dominated system.

'The idea that it is somehow un-British to do coalitions will be seen as wrong after this election,' Professor Patrick Dunleavy of the London School of Economics (LSE) told the German Press Agency dpa.

'It will be a deeply hung parliament,' predicted Dunleavy, making possible both coalition scenarios - Liberal-Labour (Lib-Lab) or Liberal-Conservative (Lib-Con).

Clegg has left his options open about future alliances, or Liberal support for a possible minority government of either Labour or the Conservatives.

'It would be awkward for Clegg to work with the Conservatives,' said Dunleavy, with the parties disagreeing fundamentally on issues such as the economy, defence and immigration.

However, David Cameron's Conservatives are in the lead in opinion polls, at around 35 per cent of the vote, although that will probably not be enough to win an absolute majority of seats under the first- past-the post system.

Labour, under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, is struggling for its political survival after 13 years in government. Clegg has indicated that, in the event of a Lib-Lab pact, he would prefer to work with a person other than Brown.

'He is a desperate politician and I just do not believe him,' Clegg has said about Brown.

In what smacked of a desperate move this week, prominent Labour ministers urged voters to back the Lib Dems in the hope of enhancing Labour's chances of staying in power in a Lib-Lab pact.

Clegg dismissed the Labour move as a sign of 'utter desperation' and instead called on voters to follow their 'hearts' when they enter the polling booths.

Despite Labour's efforts, however, some commentators predict that the ruling party could face 'meltdown' on polling day in what is widely seen as an 'anti-Brown election.'

Constitutional experts, meanwhile, have been studying coalition blueprints from around the world, but also examples from countries - Canada for instance - where minority governments have happily survived several election cycles.