Queen Elizabeth II said everyone in Britain will respect the result of the Scottish independence referendum, in which Scotland voted to stay part of the country.
In a written statement from the Balmoral Castle in northern Scotland, the Queen said Scotland’s vote to stay part of Britain was “a result that all of us throughout the United Kingdom will respect”, Xinhua reported.
“For many in Scotland and elsewhere today, there will be strong feelings and contrasting emotions – among family, friends and neighbours,” she added.
The “No” side won Thursday’s referendum by 2,001,926 votes to 1,617,989 for “Yes”, BBC reported Friday.
The national split of the vote was 55 percent for “No” to 45 percent for “Yes”.
The results of Thursday’s voting Friday showed 55.42 percent of the Scots voting “No” for independence as against the 44.58 percent who favoured the referendum with “Yes”.
Residents of Scotland, 16 and older, including Commonwealth and European Union nationals, were eligible to vote on the question whether Scotland should leave the UK after 307 years of the union.
Glasgow, Scotland’s largest council area and the third largest city in Britain, voted in favour of independence 194,779 to 169,347, with Dundee, West Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire also voting “Yes”. But Scotland’s capital Edinburgh rejected independence by 194,638 votes to 123,927, while Aberdeen City voted “No” by a margin of more than 20,000 votes.
The vote was the culmination of a two-year campaign.