Polls Close İn Scottish Referendum

Voting is over in the Scottish referendum, in what is set to be one of the most historic votes in modern British history.



Polling stations closed their doors at 10 p.m. BST Thursday, having been open for 15 hours to allow the people of Scotland to decide if their country continues to exist alongside England, Northern Ireland and Wales in the United Kingdom.



Countrywide, 2,608 polling stations opened at 7 a.m., some in rough city housing estates, others on rocky windswept islands separated by miles of rough seas from the mainland, inhabited by just a couple of thousand people.



Polls late Wednesday showed that the vote was too close to call with a Mori poll putting the "No" campaign at 51 percent and the "Yes" campaign at 49 percent. A YouGove poll for the Sun newspaper put the "No" campaign at 52 percent and "Yes" at 48. 



With 4,285,323 people registered to vote - 97 percent of the electorate - turn out was expected to be a record high in Scotland.



A few hours before polls closed, Twitter was alive with party leaders and campaigners urging supporters to cast their vote, although rumors suggested that many polling stations had already closed their doors - their electorate already having had their say.



At one station in Edinburgh, 23-year-old Jack Jones - a first time voter - told the Anadolu Agency that he had no regrets at which box he'd ticked.



"I feel like I made the right decision by voting 'Yes'," he said proudly.



Suzanna - another first time voter, who only wanted to give her first name - emerged from the same station to say she'd voted "No." 



"I'm nervous about which way the votes are going to go, and what will happen to the country," she told AA.



From 2 a.m. Friday morning, 32 local authorities will start to present their results to the chief counting officer Mary Pitcaithly in Edinburgh, who is expected to declare the final result later in the morning.



The referendum threatens a union that has lasted for 305 years.



If the "yes" vote is successful, Scotland is not expected to entirely leave the UK until 2016, the Scottish National Party proposing March 26, 2016 as its Independence Day.




www.aa.com.tr/en - Greater London