HYTHE, England - Michael Howard, the top rival for Prime Minister Tony Blair's job, voted Thursday in a general election seen as highly unlikely to return his Conservative Party to power.
Howard and his wife Sandra, joined by their daughter Larissa, cast their ballots in Folkestone and Hythe, on the south coast of England, where he is defending his seat from a strong challenge by opposition Liberal Democrats.
The Conservative leader, 63, pursued last-ditch campaigning through the early hours of voting day, calling on the 44-million-strong electorate to sanction Blair and praising his party for "going great guns".
Polls widely predict that the Labour Party will win an unprecedented third consecutive term, following its prior election victories in 1997 and 2001.
If Howard fails to pull a significant number of seats away from Labour, experts predict he could be ousted from the party leadership soon after the election.
The Conservatives are forecast to win about 33 percent of the vote -- unchanged from their position eight years ago and a disappointing outcome for a party that governed Britain for 18 years until 1997.
While Howard and his family cast their ballots in the village hall in Lympne, Blair and Liberal Democrat liberal Charles Kennedy also voted in their home constituencies.
Blair, his wife Cherie and their two eldest children, sons Euan and Nicky, turned out in the prime minister's constituency of Sedgefield, in County Durham, in the north of England.
Kennedy, the Scottish leader of Britain's third party, was present to cast his ballot in the Highlands constituency he has represented since 1983, when he was 23.
05/05/2005 14:16 GMT