Brexit coming to a major crossroads as polling result will determine its future

Voters in the United Kingdom went to the polls on Thursday to cast their ballots in a general election that has been dominated by the question of the country's membership of and future relationship with the European Union.

Many people shared images depicting long lines outside polling stations across the country, and early signs pointed to a large turnout for what competing parties have described as the most important election in a generation.

Youth Quake trended at number one on UK Twitter, as a surge of new voters — who were too young to cast ballots in the 2016 referendum — made their voices heard.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson triggered the election in October, frustrated by the parliamentary deadlock that stopped him pushing through an EU exit deal negotiated by his Conservative Party government.

The issues of Brexit — Britain's proposed departure from the EU — how and when it will happen, and what the consequences will be, have paralyzed British politics ever since the Vote Leave campaign emerged victorious from the referendum of June 23, 2016.

When he announced plans for the referendum in 2013, former prime minister David Cameron said it would, once and for all, "settle this European question". He could not have been wider of the mark.

A shell-shocked Cameron stepped aside as soon as the result, a 52 percent to 48 percent majority in favor of leaving the EU, emerged. Theresa May, who had supported Remain, replaced him and embarked on an agonizing three-year premiership in which she gambled on calling a general election in 2017, only to lose her party's majority, and she never came close to getting a Brexit deal through Parliament, before admitting defeat and stepping down.

Her successor, Johnson, a prominent Leave campaigner in 2016, suffered an unprecedented series of defeats in Parliament in his first weeks in office, prompting him to roll the dice and call the election.

Johnson is hopeful that the outcome of Thursday's vote will give him a majority big enough to enable him to, in the words of his campaign mantra, get Brexit done. For weeks, the Conservatives have led in the opinion polls, but members will not have forgotten the party's failure to gain working majorities in two of the last three elections.

In an election that has become so simplified — almost along the lines of a yes-no referendum — Johnson's main opponent, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, has frustrated some supporters by not confronting him from a strong Remain position.

But the Brexit question has never divided opinion clearly along party lines — there are Labour supporters who wish to leave the EU, and Conservatives who voted Remain.

There is the possibility of a geographical inversion in this election, with the make-up of traditional Conservative and Labour heartlands being reversed.

Corbyn has promised that Labour would put an EU exit deal to the people in a second referendum. He has also attempted, with middling success, to focus the minds of the nation on issues beyond Brexit, such as the country's National Health Service.

Johnson has opted to use the 2016 Leave playbook and keep the message simple. In the referendum, all subjects led back to the issue of immigration, and this time everything is about Brexit.

There is a chance that the result, which is expected in the early hours of Friday morning, could deliver a clear path forward on Brexit. But the result is just as likely to further muddy the waters, and possibly produce another hung Parliament.