Sept 18 2014 (TSR) – Polls have opened in Scotland but what next? Here is the historic timetable of what to expect over the next 24 hours.
Thursday:
7am Polling stations open.
7.30am Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon votes in Broomhouse, Glasgow.
9am Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond to cast his vote in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, while Gordon Brown votes in North Queensferry.
9.30am Better Together campaign leader Alistair Darling votes in Edinburgh.
10pm Polls close.
Midnight The counting of ballot papers gets under way across Scotland’s 32 local authorities.
Friday:
2am First seven councils expected to declare their results: East Lothian, Inverclyde, Moray, North Lanarkshire, the Orkney Islands, Perth and Kinross and the Western Isles.
2.30am Clackmannanshire votes declared.
3am Aberdeenshire, Angus, Dumfries and Galloway, Dundee, East Ayrshire, East Renfrewshire, Falkirk, Renfrewshire, South Lanarkshire, Stirling and West Dunbartonshire to declare – that will bring counting to just under half the votes to be counted.
3.30am Midlothian, Shetland, South Ayreshire, Argyll, West Lothian and East Dunbartonshire to declare.
4am Fife and Highland to declare.
4.30am North Ayrshire will declare votes.
5am Declarations expected from the Scottish Borders, Edinburgh and Glasgow. Final outcome may now be clear.
6am Aberdeen will be the last to declare.
7am: Chief counting officer Mary Pitcaithly expected to announce result from the Royal Highland Centre in Ingliston outside Edinburgh.
