The ultimate dummies guide: everything you need to know about the General Election

After weeks of campaigning the time for talking is nearly over, with Prime Minister Theresa May facing her very own D-Day.

So what do you need to know about tomorrow, before you head into that booth to deliver your vote?

Why is this election happening now?

FOR months Mrs May insisted she would not be calling a General Election, only to stun the nation on Tuesday, April 18 by announcing one.

The 'snap' contest comes only two years after the May 2015 election which gave former PM David Cameron a working majority of 17 MPs.

Mrs May says she wants a stronger parliamentary majority to give her Government extra clout during the Brexit negotiations ahead.

At the time, she claimed "the country is coming together, but Westminster is not", saying Labour, the Lib Dems and House of Lords had vowed to try and disrupt the process.

What have the other parties said about it?

LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn has welcomed the snap General Election, saying it will give voters chance to back "an effective alternative" to the Conservatives, putting issues like the NHS, schools and renationalisation of key services like railways at the heart of his agenda.

But all rival parties have been sceptical about Mrs May's election u-turn, saying she is trying to capitalise on Labour's poll ratings.

The Lib Dems, of course, have based their campaign around another EU referendum once a Brexit 'deal' is reached.

What happens tomorrow?

POLLING stations across Worcestershire open at 7am tomorrow and will close at 10pm.

You should have been sent a card now which will have details of your nearest polling station, unless you have opted for a postal vote or are doing it via proxy.

When you enter your nearest polling station, there is no need to take your polling card with you.

Who I am voting for?

ACROSS the county there are six constituencies, with each seat currently Conservative, although of course that could change.

You can find out about the Worcester candidates here, for Mid-Worcestershire all the details are here and for West Worcestershire, go here.

The Wyre Forest hopefuls are listed here, for Redditch go here and for Bromsgrove candidates click here.

More election stories from this website in recent weeks can be found here.

Technically, you are voting for whichever candidate you want to represent you in parliament, although the party which gets an overall majority can form a Government.

There are 650 MPs in the House of Commons, with the Conservatives on 330, giving the party its working majority of 17.

Labour has 229, the SNP 54, and the Lib Dems nine. Minor parties and independents hold the remaining seats.

When will I know the outcome?

ONCE the polls close at 10pm tomorrow, counting will take place in all six constituencies in Worcestershire and right across Britain.

In Worcester, the count will take place at Perdiswell Leisure Centre, West Worcestershire's is at The Abbey Hotel in Malvern and Wychavon's will be at Pershore Leisure Centre.

The results in the county will start coming in from around 1am Friday morning, although it may be closer to 4am before all areas start to declare.

By then, we should know which party has won the General Election.

Who will win then?

THAT'S the question nobody can answer - with the polls throwing up some haphazard predictions in recent weeks.

Mrs May was widely considered to be on course for a landslide only a month ago, with some pundits predicting a Tory majority as large as 100 seats after some polls showed a massive 17-point lead.

But her ratings have been in sharp decline ever since, with the likes of Survation and Yougov suggesting Mr Corbyn is now just seven points away, on average.

Never before has an election in modern times seen as much movement in the pollsters’ predictions over such a short campaign.

Polling yesterday suggested we could be heading for a hung parliament after a Survation poll found the Tories on 41.5 per cent and Labour on 40.4 per cent.

The polls also suggest there have been shifts in support between a number of parties.

Since the campaign began, UKIP has seen its average rating drop from 11 per cent to four per cent, the Lib Dems from 10 per cent to eight per cent and the Greens from four per cent to two per cent.

But polls are snapshots of opinion, not forecasts, and things could look very different once the actual results arrive.

How can follow what's going on?

TOMORROW we'll have a live elections day blog on this website from 10am, telling you everything you need to know as the day unfolds.

Our rolling online coverage will then continue into the night, with reporters at all six counts across Worcestershire.

All the results will be on this website in the early hours of Friday morning, and Saturday's Worcester News will also carry special reaction and analysis on the big General Election verdict.