With pollsters suggesting a Johnson win, the first results could be in as early as 11pm GMT (10am AEST)

After a six-week campaign, the UK goes to the polls on Thursday (Thursday night in Australia) in a vote to determine whether the Conservative party’s Boris Johnson or Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn will form government.

Johnson has been telling voters “let’s get Brexit done”, while Corbyn has been emphasising this is the “last chance to save the National Health Service”.

Here’s a quick guide to how the voting works, when we’re likely to get a result and what that result could mean for Brexit.

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How does the UK voting system work?

Everyone aged over 18 is entitled to vote, which means the electorate comprises around 46 million people, but voting is not compulsory. Turnout at the last election in 2017 was 68.8%.

There are 650 constituencies throughout England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and voting will take place in 40,000 polling stations.

It’s a simple first-past-the-post system, which means that those 46 million voters will make one cross or tick on a ballot paper listing the candidates standing in their constituency. The candidate with the most votes wins a seat at Westminster.

The timing of the election could affect turnout. It’s the first election held in December since 1923 and parties have typically avoided polls in winter (there was one in February 1974) because it’s considered harder to get the vote out in poorer weather – especially for Labour.

The forecast for Thursday is rain for much of the country.

What happens after that?

When the polling stations close at 10pm GMT (9am Friday AEDT), the television stations will release an exit poll. These have become quite accurate predictors of the final outcome and in 2017 delivered a shock by showing that Theresa May was going to lose her majority.

The first real results could be in as early as 11pm GMT (10am AEDT) with the final ones in within 24 hours.

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A party needs 326 seats for a majority in the Commons without relying on support from smaller parties. If Boris Johnson or Jeremy Corbyn get to this magic number they can go to the Queen and tell her they are forming a government. Just like in The Crown.

So who will it be?

The polls indicate that it is Johnson who has the best chance of forming government and staying in 10 Downing Street.

Our poll tracker shows Johnson’s lead early in the campaign has fallen a bit. The Tories are on 43%, Labour on 33%, the Lib Dems on 13%, and the Greens and Brexit parties on 3% each. A YouGov poll on Tuesday reckoned Johnson would get a majority of 28, down from 68 a fortnight ago.

Marginal constituencies hold huge importance in the winner-takes-all system and this one will be no different. Anti-Tory parties have been combining to argue for tactical voting in order to keep Conservative candidates out. This makes the outcomes harder to predict for pollsters and could distort the forecasts.

What has the election been fought over?

The election was called to resolve the Brexit imbroglio that has gripped the nation since the 2016 referendum. While Brexit has understandably been hotly debated throughout the campaign, fatigue over the issue has given space to other questions, such as the future of the NHS, big spending pledges by both major parties, and policing.

However, even the NHS has been seen through the Brexit lens with Labour – which traditionally owns the issue – campaigning relentlessly on claims that the Tories would include NHS contracts in a post-Brexit deal with the US. This has forced Johnson to spend a lot of time visiting hospitals.

North of the border, where the Scottish Nationalist party will be the biggest party ahead of the Tories, the chances of a second independence referendum to split from the UK has been a major issue.

Ok, but what does it all mean for Brexit?

If Johnson wins a majority he has promised to deliver Brexit by the end of next year, although obstacles still have to be overcome on the Irish border question.

If he fails to get a majority but forms another minority government with, say, the Brexit party or the Democratic Unionists, he risks a repeat of the humiliations of earlier in the year. But this seems less likely because many Tories who voted against him are not standing for re-election this time so his parliamentary support should be firmer.

If Corbyn wins a majority, which seems very unlikely, he has promised to hold a second referendum. If he forms a coalition government, say with the fiercely anti-Brexit Lib Dems or the SNP, it becomes more difficult to predict.

How can I find out what’s happening?

Keep track right here as the Guardian liveblogs the result.