Polling data in advance of the election suggests no party will win enough seats (326) in Commons to have a majority in the 650 seat lower house. Thus, another coalition government appears to be in the offing.
Unlike the proportional representation system in use in Israel and, I believe, Italy, the Brits give each seat to the single candidate who wins the most votes, even if "most" is only 27%, for example, in a four-way race. This "first-past-the-post" system effectively disenfranchises voters for minor parties, which win few constituencies outright.
The system is designed to create clear-cut winners and losers. It will likely not accomplish that goal this time out.
What is really new in this election is that, historically Scotland has been a Labour stronghold. Since the independence referendum that lost last September, the Scottish National Party has managed to garner most of Labour's votes and may win most of the nearly 60 seats in Scotland.
This creates a peculiar situation where Scotland has its own parliament, which decides local issues like education, health care, etc. The SNP MPs elected later today will go to Westminster and vote on issues dealing with England, since the England part of the U.K. doesn't have its own local parliament (as Scotland does). Expect fireworks.
