Should Scotland be an independent country?
Voters are set to tick off either a YES or NO on their ballots for the Scottish independence referendum on September 18. This could mean that the centuries-old call for a separate and sovereign State of Scotland, which had at several instances been fought on bloody battlefields, may finally be settled peacefully at the polls.
The referendum is pursuant to the Edinburgh Agreement signed by the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Government in 2012.
The voting takes place in each of the 32 local authority areas that make up Scotland. At 10 p.m. the voting stations closed and the sealed ballot boxes transported to counting halls. Although this will be a straightforward procedure in big urban areas such as Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen; it could prove tricky in the more remote parts of Scotland, such as the mountainous highlands and the many islands off the coast where boats, planes and helicopters will be commissioned to speed up the process.
Lawyer Mary Pitcaithly, who serves as Chief Counting Officer for the referendum, will oversee the counting which will have thousands of staff will stay up all night, carefully counting each vote.
As the results are reached in each of those 32 council areas they will be announced after verification by Pitcaithly.
There are 4,120,000 registered voters in Scotland, where the age of voting has been lowered from 18 to 16, giving up to 100,000 youth a say in self-determination.
Some 690,000 Scottish people living over the border in England will not be allowed to vote, as they are not registered on the electoral register in Scotland. However, over 420,000 English people resident in Scotland will be given a chance to cast their votes.
Observers are predicting that the turn-out will be between 80 percent and 90 percent of voters, the largest ever in a British referendum.
Photo courtesy of http://osumun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2014/02/Scottish-Referendum.jpg
