Millions of UK voters will go to the polls tomorrow after prime minister Rishi Sunak unexpectedly announced a general election.
The aim is to elect Members of Parliament (MPs) to the House of Commons.
The UK is divided into 650 constituencies, each of which elects one MP to represent local residents.
Most candidates represent a political party, but some are independent.
Anyone on the electoral register who is 18 or over on polling day can vote if they are a British citizen, a qualifying Commonwealth citizen or a Republic of Ireland citizen with a UK address.
Those who live abroad can register to vote in the constituency where they were previously resident or on the electoral roll.
Students can be registered at both their home and term-time addresses but must only vote in one place.
Those who cannot vote in general elections include prisoners serving a sentence in jail and peers from the House of Lords.
In Cumbria, as elsewhere, elections are preceded by campaigning and our first picture shows Carlisle Liberal candidate Frank Phillips talking to construction workers in the city centre in the run-up to the general election in October 1974. Barry Adams and Colin Dunn were working on a new office block.
(Image: Newsquest)
In another image from the same year, MP William Whitelaw is shown on the campaign trail.
(Image: Newsquest)
Former two time mayor Alderman Ossie Coyles proved at, at 96, he still had stamina by attending both the elected mayor and the general election count in 2015.
(Image: Newsquest)
Those doing the actual counting are pictured beavering away in Workington.
(Image: Newsquest)
When the results came through, they showed that Sue Hayman had won for Labour.
(Image: Newsquest)
(Image: Newsquest)
Spectators at the count are captured anxiously watching on while UKIP’s Bob Hardon looks concerned.
(Image: Newsquest)
(Image: Newsquest)
Andrew Lawson and Mike Heaslip took time out to check the progress nationally and the ballots from Eden are shown arriving under the cover of darkness.
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