The people of Wales go to the polls today to elect 60 members to the first national assembly for Wales in its history.
The question remains whether a low turnout and tactical voting by the electorate will wreck the chances of the Welsh Secretary, Mr Alun Michael, being elected as Labour's First Secretary in Wales, in this uncertain era of devolution.
Throughout the four-week campaign, Labour sources in Wales have brushed aside this question, saying confidently that "we have done the calculations" and Mr Michael is assured election when the final results are announced tomorrow at lunch-time. Until the final count, however, he faces a restless night.
Success for the Welsh nationalist party, Plaid Cymru, which has been urging voters to use both their constituency vote and regional additional member vote to squeeze out Mr Michael in Mid and West Wales, where he heads the regional list, could prove deeply embarrassing for Labour.
If he was suffering from last-minute nerves during the last day of the campaign in Cardiff yesterday, Mr Michael wasn't showing it. Having been perceived by some Labour supporters as being "Blair's man", thrust upon the party at Downing Street's insistence, the issue finally would be settled by the voters.
His last campaign photo-call saw him predict that Labour would win a majority and that he would be leading it.
Speculation that Labour planned to nominate Welsh MEP, Mr Wayne David, should he fail was officially denied. "That story came straight out of left field," said Mr Rhodri Morgan, who was defeated by Mr Michael in February's leadership contest.
Of course, Mr Morgan and the former Welsh Secretary, Mr Ron Davies, could benefit if Mr Michael fails to get elected but the maverick Mr Morgan didn't want to talk about his leadership plans or otherwise.
Standing next to Mr Michael, he insisted: "This is real unity. It is not a display of unity. I haven't given it a second thought."
At a press conference in London, the Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair, was warning against complacency. "The elections tomorrow [Thursday] matter. There is no such thing as a wasted vote or an unnecessary vote."
Referring to Objective 1 status for Wales and government match-funding, he was forced to come to Mr Michael's rescue after the Welsh Secretary angered Labour's opponents this week when he said that £1.3 billion match-funding may have to wait until the next spending round in 2000.
"We will make sure as we've always said that we will not let the people of Wales down," Mr Blair said.
In the Commons during Welsh Questions, the party leaders traded the last insults of the campaign. Mr Dafydd Wigley, Plaid Cymru president, accused Mr Michael of causing "dismay" among manufacturers with his comments on match-funding for the poorer regions of Wales.
Labour mounted a personal attack, describing Mr Wigley's leadership as "overconfident, over-stretched and overblown".
Labour claims that its opponents were pulling an "artificial" argument out of the hat were criticised by the leader of the Conservatives in Wales, Mr Rod Richards, who denounced Mr Blair's words. "I don't believe anybody in Wales trusts Tony Blair anymore."
The amount of seats the Conservatives win in the assembly will be a mid-term test for the party, which did not return any Welsh seats to Parliament in the 1997 general election. The Conservatives were against the assembly at the 1997 referendum but insist they will work within the assembly to preserve the Union.