Participation in Florida primary looking high

The voting is beginning to come to an end in the Sunshine State this hour as the Republican presidential candidates vie for the fifty seven convention delegates up for grabs in the winner take all contest:

Polls suggest John McCain and Mitt Romney are neck and neck, with Mike Huckabee and Rudy Giuliani trailing.

Former New York Mayor Mr Giuliani, who led national Republican polls for months, has staked his bid for the party nomination on winning Florida.

The Democratic election is mostly symbolic after an internal party row.

For the Republican hopefuls, 57 delegates are at stake in the winner-takes-all primary.

They will attend the party's national convention later this year when the Republican candidate is chosen.

The Florida victor will also gain crucial momentum ahead of Super Tuesday on 5 February, when 24 states vote.

Mr Giuliani, who has focused almost his entire campaign so far on Florida, will be hoping the opinion polls that have him trailing well behind the two front-runners prove to be wrong.

Mr Giuliani has insisted that he expects to win the primary.

"You don't contemplate losing it. That isn't something you do on the day of a primary," he said.

According to Florida election officials, turnout has been "steady" all day, with polling places in the highly populated Miami urban areas the highest. The networks and Associated Press are of course holding on to their exit polling data, but will undoubtedly not hesitate to coronate a winner in an hour if the numbers suggest a rout by one of the candidates.

The polls have just closed in most of Florida (it's 7 PM), but are still open in the Panhandle because that part of the state uses Central Time.