There is a clear choice, so don't waste your vote

In any democracy, this is a charmed moment: the point at which the campaigning ends and the responsibility passes to the people. In some ways, we are sorry the hustings have been dismantled so soon. Against most expectations, this has been a far from boring four weeks. It has been a frantic, intense, argumentative and often fascinating contest; a hard-fought campaign that justified the battlefield connotations of the word.

In any democracy, this is a charmed moment: the point at which the campaigning ends and the responsibility passes to the people. In some ways, we are sorry the hustings have been dismantled so soon. Against most expectations, this has been a far from boring four weeks. It has been a frantic, intense, argumentative and often fascinating contest; a hard-fought campaign that justified the battlefield connotations of the word.

This was a campaign of contrasts. Among the mistaken early forecasts, perhaps the greatest was to dismiss the competing parties as the same. In policies, as in personalities, the parties offered clear choices. Our chief regret is that the Prime Minister pushed so many major issues off his agenda: from pension and council tax reform to nuclear power and the nuclear deterrent. If Labour is re-elected, it will be largely because of the way voters judge the party's record in government, not because of the future commitments it has made.

The campaign told us much about the party leaders as personalities. Charles Kennedy - cheerful, familiar and at times a little vague, but invariably positive. Michael Howard - the initiator of the most negative parts of this campaign, but forceful and cogent as well. Tony Blair - as energetic and political as ever, but compelled to shore up his personal credibility by accepting Gordon Brown as his running mate.

It was also a campaign of rapidly changing dynamics. After a strong start, the Tory campaign began to fade as the immigration card lost its lustre. Mr Blair regained the initiative once he had Mr Brown at his side and campaigned on public services - then lost it again with the precipitate arrival of Iraq in the last 10 days. Iraq gave Mr Kennedy his chance and allowed the Liberal Democrats to parade as the "real alternative". Meanwhile, diverging polls left the suspicion that the national trend might not be replicated in the very different marginal constituencies where the election will be decided.

Aside from the negative campaigning, there has been much else not to like. The very evident shortcomings of postal voting have cast doubt on the integrity of our electoral procedures for the first time in living memory. The winners of close contests may well mount legal challenges. Complacency about the long-standing excellence of our practices has left Britain lagging behind other, newer, democracies. This is a shambles and a disgrace that the next government must remedy as a matter of urgency. Serious thought should also be given to reducing the voting age to 16.

Out on the campaign trail, the American-style professionalism of the party machines was rarely matched by American-style enthusiasm for genuinely public occasions. Although the party leaders spent many hours on the road and in the air, few rallies were mass events. They were orchestrated, invitation-only, occasions staged for television. The audiences were loyalists who could be counted on not to heckle, ask awkward questions or unfurl seditious banners. Walkabouts were brief and unpublicised - for security reasons, or was it to avoid any departure from the prepared script?

Which brings us to the unsung heroes of the campaign. Those who made this election into the contest it became were the people in the street, the studio audiences and the callers to phone-ins. They defied the prevailing apathy. They asked the common-sense questions that did not occur to professional interviewers. They cut through the double-speak; they refused to take "maybe" for an answer. Good for them. Imperfect it may be, but an election is the one chance we have to determine how we are governed and by whom. For any responsible citizen, apathy is no option. Let the voting begin. To the polls!