THE politicians have had their say.

Weeks of doorstepping, leafleting, publicity stunts, TV debates and media coverage are at an end and now it is down to you to decide the future of our country.

In The Argus today, key figures from the five main political parties make their final pitch to you the voter as the county goes the polls.

Conservative Simon Kirby said Sussex voters face a clear choice between Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn as the country’s next Prime Minister while Labour’s Peter Kyle warned the Tories were trying to “steamroller Sussex” and end scrutiny of their “assault” on public services.

Caroline Lucas said voting Green would deliver MPs who work for their constituents and not “toe the party line” while Lib Dem Kelly-Marie Blundell said the “ultra loyalty” of Conservative Party MPs in Westminster was having “a detrimental and tangible effect” on communities.

Ukip’s Mike Glennon said the election was even more important than in 2015 with “full and successful Brexit” now at risk.

With the stakes so high it is now up to you the readers to go out and exercise that greatest of democratic freedoms; the right to vote in free and fair elections.

A right that has been so bloodily assaulted twice in this campaign.

The referendum brought the voters out in strong numbers across Sussex; a ten per cent increase in turnout at 76 per cent than in the General Election 12 months before.

Before then turnout had been falling compared to the 1997 election, all but Hove saw drops in turnout between 1997 and 2015 of between two and ten per cent before notable rises in every constituency for last summer’s referendum. Surprisingly being in a safe seat does not deter voters. The highest turnout in 2015 was in the county’s safest seat in Arundel and South Downs.

A vote this time could help shape the future of the country not just for five years but decades to come as we go through the transition of Brexit.

So, what’s stopping you going out and putting a tick in a box to play your part?