Counting on EU

In or out?

TODAY Oldham casts the most important vote of a generation.

Oldham and the rest of Britain make the enormous decision today on whether we should leave or remain in the European Union - whichever side claims more than half of the votes wins.

The referendum comes after Prime Minister David Cameron promised to hold one if he won the 2015 general election, following pressure from his own Conservative MPs and UKIP. No nation state has ever left the European Union.

The question on today's ballot paper reads "Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?"

This is an issue which has divided political parties and has triggered a long-running and heated debate over recent weeks.

But what really matters is the general public who seem to be evenly split on the issue. Polls opened this morning at 7am and will close at 10pm.

All the votes will be counted at 382 local centres around the UK and then added up - with a straight majority needed to provide the result.

These local results will be declared as the counts are completed before being collated at 12 regional centres, which will also declare the totals for each side.

There will be a rolling total so the time at which one side reaches the point of being mathematically unbeatable depends on how quickly the votes are counted and how close the results are running.

From 4am onwards tomorrow there should be a clear picture of which way the vote is going. A chief counting officer will announce the overall national result at Manchester Town Hall at a predicted time of between 4am-7am.

For full coverage, local reaction and to see how Oldham voted pick up tomorrow's Evening Chronicle.