Millions of ballot boxes lie in counting stations across the UK

Millions of guarded ballot boxes stuffed with European election voting cards are waiting in centres across the UK before the mammoth counting operation gets underway on Sunday night.

Nigel Farage's Brexit Party is expected to storm to a decisive victory following their surge to the top of the opinion polls which are predicting the collapse of the Conservative vote. 

Britain went to the polls on Thursday after a delay to the Brexit departure date forced an election to return a new batch of UK politicians to the European Parliament.

Voters in Latvia, Malta and Slovakia are casting their ballots today, before 21 other countries including Germany, France and Spain begin on Sunday.

The Italians will be the last to cast their ballots, and the UK, Netherlands and Ireland have already closed the polls. 

Unlike a General Election - when the counting process begins immediately after polls close at 10pm (BST) - votes will only be added up on Sunday so the result does not influence the electorates of the other 27 EU member states who are voting on different days.

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Many of the votes inside the ballot boxes are expected to have been cast in favour of the hardline eurosceptic Brexit Party, which is poised to thrash the mainstream parties.

Its popularity saw the party climb to 37 per cent in the latest YouGov opinion poll, miles in front of the second placed Liberal Democrats which sat on 19 per cent going into Thursday's vote.