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The results of the Scottish independence referendum are in, and the answer is a resounding “no.”
The referendum asked only a single question: Should Scotland become an independent country? Scottish voters have decided, by a large margin, that it should not. After all of the ballots were counted, “no” had taken 55.3% of the vote, and “yes” only 44.7%.
Polling stations across Scotland will open at 7am today as the country embarks on the biggest vote in its history.
More than four million people are registered to cast their votes across 32 local authority areas.
Separatist leader asks to join Russia after claiming an overwhelming ‘yes’ to self-rule in unofficial referendum.
Ukraine’s most populous regions stood on the verge of joining Russia on Monday when the birth of a “People’s Republic” was simultaneously proclaimed in Donetsk and Luhansk.
Denis Pushilin, the self-styled “prime minister” of the “Donetsk People’s Republic”, appeared outside the main government building, which was seized by his followers last month, and announced: “The People’s Republic is now sovereign!”
As pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine prepared to hold a referendum on whether to declare their independence on Sunday, acting President Oleksander Turchinov warned that a “yes” vote could mean self-destruction.
The vote will be held in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk and Luhansk regions, where pro-Russian separatists have occupied government buildings in a number of towns, and have taken complete control of the city Slaviansk. The referendum has been dismissed by Ukraine’s government and other Western countries as illegitimate.
Separatists who gathered at Donetsk Regional Council have announced the creation of the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic, a source present at an illegitimate meeting of 200 people has told a Ukrinform correspondent.