Chief vote counting officer Mary Pitcaithly announces final referendum results

(19 Sep 2014) Scottish voters have rejected independence, deciding to remain part of the United Kingdom after a historic referendum that shook the country to its core.
The final results were announced on Friday morning by Scotland's Chief Counting Officer Mary Pitcaithly.
In response to the referendum question 'Should Scotland be an independent country?', 1,617,989 people voted 'Yes' and 2,100,926 were in favour of 'No', Pitcaithly said.
Scots voted 55.3 percent to 44.7 percent on Thursday against independence in a vote that saw an unprecedented turnout of over 84 percent.
"Therefore, the majority of valid votes cast yesterday by the people of Scotland in response to the referendum question 'Should Scotland be an independent country?' were in favour of 'No'," Pitcaithly said.
More than 3,400 papers were rejected, representing 0.1 percent of all the ballot papers.
"The reasons for rejection are as follows: want of an official mark - 16 papers, voting in favour of both answers - 691 papers; writing on mark by which the vote can be identified - 168 papers, unmarked or voted for uncertainty - 2,554 papers," Pitcaithly explained.
The decision prevented a rupture of a 307-year union with England, bringing a huge sigh of relief to the British political establishment.
In return for staying in the union, Scotland's voters have been promised significant, though somewhat unspecified, new powers by the British government, which had feared losing Scotland forever.

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