Scottish Vote Turns Historic
Scots voted Thursday for their first Parliament in nearly three centuries, the most radical development in Prime Minister Tony Blair's program to decentralize Britain without breaking it apart.
Blair's Labor Party appeared headed for victory in balloting among the 5 million Scots. A British Broadcasting Corp. exit poll suggested that Labor would win the largest number of seats in the 129-member Edinburgh Parliament between 55 and 61 but would fall short of a majority.
Â"It appears the Scottish people have rejected separatism this evening,Â" said Labor spokesman Douglas Alexander, referring to his party's apparent lead over the independence-seeking Scottish National Party.
The BBC poll of 4,000 voters showed the Scottish National Party running second with between 41 and 47 seats, while the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats were running neck-and-neck, each likely to get fewer than 20 seats. The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.
The 3 million people of Wales also voted for a separate but less powerful 60-member assembly for their principality, where no strong push for independence exists. An exit poll suggested that Labor had a chance of winning a majority.
In a test of the nationwide record popularity ratings of Blair's 2-year-old administration, some 25 million English voters also were eligible to choose local government councils. The Scots and Welsh also voted for local councils.
Under the banner headline Â"Scotland makes history,Â" the Edinburgh-based Scotsman newspaper acknowledged uncertainty about whether the new way of governing Britain will lead Â"to a stronger union or independence.Â"
Many Scots find the mere prospect of breaking with England alarming. They have shared a monarch with England since 1603 and a Parliament in London since 1707.
Â"I've never trusted what the nationalists say about Scotland being better off without England,Â" said Thomas Logan, 50, a forklift truck driver who voted Labor in Edinburgh's inner-city South Side district.
Still, Thursday's vote marked a transformation for the Scottish Nationalist Party from a fringe group in the House of Commons in London to Scotland's official opposition.
Â"We won't get independence this time, but we are on our way,Â" said Karen Morgan, 33, after voting in the South Side district.
The nationalists were hurt by Labor's powerful election machine, which maintained that an independent Scotland would quickly fall into debt.
Blair called referendums in September 1997 for the constitutional changes establishing the assemblies. The Scots were two-thirds in favor, but the Welsh agreed by only a tiny minority.
Northern Ireland, also part of the United Kingdom, already has elected its new assembly.
The Edinburgh Parliament will control most domestic affairs, including health, education, transportation and sports, and will have the power to make laws nd raise taxes.
The big challenge in England on Thursday was to get voters with nothing new to choose to bother to turn out.
Some 13,000 seats were at stake on 362 councils in England, Wales and Scotland. For the Conservative Party, the battered major opposition group in the House of Commons, the polls were a chance to halt plunging fortunes since losing power in 1997.