EDINBURGH: On the eve of Scotland’s independence referendum, the fate of the United Kingdom rests on hundreds of thousands of wavering Scottish voters as opinion polls showed supporters of the 307-year union just a whisker ahead of secessionists.

In an intense final day of campaigning, leaders of both sides beseeched Scots to seize the reins of history in a vote that has divided families, friends and lovers but also electrified this country of 5.3 million.

From the remote Scottish islands of the Atlantic to the toughest city estates of Glasgow, voters will be asked on Thursday to answer “Yes” or “No” to the question: “Should Scotland be an independent country?”.

Four surveys — from pollsters Panelbase, Survation, Opinium and ICM — showed support for independence at 48 per cent compared with 52 per cent for the union, while a fifth, from Ipsos MORI, showed it even closer on 49 to 51 per cent.

Surveys predict an extremely close race

The surveys also showed as many as 600,000 voters remained undecided with just hours to go before polling stations open at 0600 GMT on Thursday.

“Don’t let this opportunity slip through our fingers. Don’t let them tell us we can’t. Let’s do this,” Alex Salmond, Scotland’s 59-year-old nationalist leader, said in an open letter to voters as he crisscrossed Scotland.

Invoking economist Adam Smith and Scotland’s greatest poet Robert Burns, Mr Salmond implored Scots: “Wake up on Friday morning to the first day of a better country.” With a mix of shrewd calculation and nationalist passion, Mr Salmond has hauled the “Yes” campaign from far behind to within a few percentage points of winning his dream of an independent Scotland.

Facing the biggest internal threat to the United Kingdom since Ireland broke away nearly a century ago, Britain’s establishment — from Prime Minister David Cameron to corporate bigwigs and pop-culture celebrities — have united in a last-ditch effort to convince Scots that the United Kingdom is “Better Together”.

Mr Cameron’s job could be on the line if Scotland breaks away, but the 47-year-old prime minister has conceded that his privileged English background and Conservative politics mean he isn’t the best person to win over Scots.

That has left the leadership of the unionist case in the hands of the opposition Labour party, winner of 41 Scottish seats in the 2010 British election and the only party with the local support capable of checking the secessionist Scottish National Party.

Former Labour prime minister Gordon Brown, a Scot who has in recent days led the battle cry for the union, warned Scots in Glasgow, Scotland’s biggest city, that Mr Salmond was “leading us into a trap”.

“Have confidence, stand up and be counted tomorrow,” Mr Brown thundered, fists clenched, to applause and cheers from unionist supporters. “Say to your friends, for reasons of solidarity, sharing, pride in Scotland, the only answer is vote ‘No’.”

In the event of a vote for independence, Britain and Scotland would face 18 months of talks over how to carve up North Sea oil and what to do about European Union membership and Britain’s main nuclear submarine base.

Scotland says it will use the pound after independence but London has ruled out a formal currency union, while Britain will have to decide what to do about the nuclear submarine base on the Clyde, which the nationalists want to eject.

The prospect of breaking up of the UK, the world’s sixth-largest economy, has prompted citizens and allies alike to ponder what would be left, while the financiers of the City of London have warned of market turmoil.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2014