Scotland Braces for Historic Independence Vote

Perth: The campaign for Scotland's independence referendum went down to the wire on the eve of a knife-edge vote on Thursday that will either see Scotland break away from the United Kingdom or gain sweeping new powers.

Pro-independence leader Alex Salmond, making what could be the most important speech of his career, urged Scots to seize the opportunity as polls showed the vote could go either way.

"This is our opportunity of a lifetime and we must seize it with both hands," the Scottish first minister told a crowd that waved blue and white Saltire flags and occasionally broke into chants of "Yes we can".

"Tomorrow for a few precious hours during polling day, the people of Scotland will hold in our hands the exclusive solemn power to define our nation for the future," Salmond said.

"It's the greatest, most empowering moment that any of us will ever have."

Salmond said the pro-independence side was still an underdog and promised to accept the result with dignity if the vote went against him.

Three opinion polls on the eve of the referendum showed a very narrow majority against independence but showed that the undecideds could swing it either way with just hours to go before polls open on Thursday at 0600 GMT.

Record numbers have registered for the referendum -- 97 percent of eligible voters -- and turnout is expected to be very high with officials saying it could be around 80 percent.

"It's an event that has energised the interest in Scotland like nothing else in politics. This is something absolutely unprecedented," said Magnus Gardham, political editor of Glasgow-based newspaper The Herald.

- Final push -
On the final day of campaigning both "Yes" and "No" camps mobilised thousands of volunteers on streets across Scotland in a final push to win over undecided voters in a heated debate that has fired up Scots on both sides.

"I'm really optimistic that if we do have independence, we can start building a society that works for all of us," said 24-year-old Sam Hollick, a "Yes" activist from the Green Party who was campaigning at a stand in Edinburgh blaring a song by Scottish band The Proclaimers.

But at a "No" rally in Glasgow, former British prime minister Gordon Brown appealed to Scots' wartime patriotism and said voting against separation would still mean Scotland gaining much greater local power.

"We fought two world wars together," he told hundreds of supporters.

"There's not a cemetery in Europe that doesn't have a Scot, a Welshman, an Irish and an Englishman side by side."

Differences over whether to support "Yes" or "No" have divided families and lifelong friends and the Church of Scotland on Wednesday called for "a spirit of unity" and "cool heads and calm hearts".

A late surge in support for the "Yes" campaign has also sent jitters through the financial markets, helping to bring down the value of the pound and dragging down the stocks of Scotland-based companies.

Salmond has dismissed the economic arguments -- including what currency an independent Scotland would use as the Bank of England has ruled out a currency union -- as "scaremongering" by the "No" campaign.

But Heather Whiteside, a 21-year-old graduate from Glasgow University who came to see Brown at a campaign event in the city said the prospect of a "Yes" victory was "very scary".

"Nationalism is a bad kind of politics, it tries to create artificial barriers between people," she said.

- 'Torpedo' for Europe -
A "Yes" victory would not mean independence overnight but would sound the starting gun on months and possibly years of complex negotiations on separating two deeply linked economic systems.

It could lead to Prime Minister David Cameron's resignation and would embolden other separatist movements around the world.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy weighed in on the debate on Wednesday, branding moves for independence like Spain's Catalonia region a "torpedo" to European integration.

"Everyone in Europe thinks that these processes are hugely negative," financially and economically, Rajoy told the Spanish parliament.


On the eve of the vote, President Barack Obama spoke out against independence.

"The UK is an extraordinary partner for America and a force for good in an unstable world. I hope it remains strong, robust and united," read a tweet signed with Obama's initials on the White House Twitter account.

A series of polls released on Wednesday showed that independence would be rejected by 52 percent to 48 percent, with undecided voters excluded.

Another by Ipsos-Mori for broadcaster STV showed the gap even closer, on 51 percent against independence and 49 percent in favour.

The results are close to margins of error and many commentators have said the final outcome is "too close to call" ahead of time.