Rivals bid for votes
Campaigners for and against Scottish independence scrambled for votes yesterday ahead of a historic referendum, as a religious leader prayed for harmony after polls showed Scots were almost evenly split.
The Church of Scotland's moderator John Chalmers called for Scots to "live in harmony with one another" whatever the result and hailed the feverish run-up to Thursday's vote as "a wonderful democratic concerto".
"All of those who will vote 'Yes' and all of those who will vote 'No' need to remember that we belong together in the same Scotland," he told worshippers at St Mary's Episcopal Church in Edinburgh in a sermon broadcast on BBC radio nationwide.
"We cannot afford to lose the momentum and interest in civic life which this campaign has generated," said Chalmers, moderator of the general assembly of the Church, the largest religious group in Scotland.
The pro-union camp has been far ahead in the polls for many months, but the difference has narrowed in recent weeks and a raft of surveys over the weekend indicated that Thursday's vote could go either way.
A Survation poll on Saturday showed the "No" camp at 47 percent and the "Yes" at 40.8 percent, with 9.0 percent undecided and 3.2 percent unwilling to say.
An Opinium survey for yesterday's Observer newspaper put "No" at 47.7 percent and "Yes" at 42.3 percent, with 10 percent not voting or not sure if they would.
An ICM online poll for the Sunday Telegraph placed the pro-independence campaign at 49 percent and the pro-UK at 42 percent with 9.0 percent undecided, but a senior pollster warned the sample size was too small.
"The polls show that the referendum is on a knife-edge. There is everything to play for," said Blair Jenkins, chief executive of the "Yes Scotland" campaign.
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