Scots Go To Polls in Historic Vote
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Both excitement and anxiety are mounting as Scotland starts voting in knife-edge referendum to determine whether to break away from the United Kingdom and become independent.
As polls open in Scotland, most opinion polls and experts say it is a vote too tight to predict. The voting is going to continue until 21GMT.
In its final hours, the battle for Scotland had all the trappings of a normal election campaign: "Yes Scotland'' and "No, Thanks'' posters in windows, buttons on jackets, leaflets on street corners and megaphone-topped campaign cars cruising the streets blasting out Scottish songs and "Children of the Revolution," Al Jazeera reported.
The gravity of the imminent decision was hitting home for many voters as political leaders made passionate, final pleas for their sides.
More than 4.2 million people are registered to vote in the country of 5.3 million people, including, for the first time, 16 and 17-year-olds - with neither side assured of a victory.
The latest polls released by Ipsos MORI, on Wednesday, put opposition to independence at 51 percent and support at 49 percent, with five percent of voters undecided. The company had conducted a telephonic poll of 1,373 people.
In the event of a vote for independence, Britain and Scotland would have to begin work on dividing up the $2.5 trillion UK economy, North Sea oil and the national debt, while Prime Minister David Cameron would face calls to resign.
Scotland would have to decide what currency it would use after London said it could not use the pound in a currency union, while Britain would have to decide what to do about its main nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, which the nationalists would like to eject.
