Scottish Opponents of Independence Slightly Ahead: Polls

Scottish Opponents of Independence Slightly Ahead: Polls

EDINBURGH (Reuters) – Scottish supporters of staying in the United Kingdom are 4 percentage points ahead of secessionists with just a day to go before Scots vote in an independence referendum, three different opinion polls showed.

The United Kingdom’s fate remains uncertain as the three surveys – from pollsters ICM, Opinium and Survation – showed support for Scottish independence at 48 percent compared to 52 percent backing union.

The polls found 8 to 14 percent of Scotland’s 4.3 million voters were still undecided before polls open at 0600 GMT (07:00 a.m. BST) on Thursday.

All three polls showed nationalists had gained ground, but the fact that supporters of the union were ahead in the polls prompted investors to buy the pound, extending sterling’s gain against the U.S. dollar.

“It is very tight,” John Curtice, professor of politics at Strathclyde University and one of Scotland’s premier pollsters, told the Scotsman newspaper which commissioned the ICM poll.

“At the moment it looks as if the ‘yes’ campaign is going to fall agonisingly short from their perspective. But I have always said this is the ‘no’ campaign’s to lose and it certainly looks as if they have got pretty close to that.”

Read more at Reuters
 

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