Off the wire
• A man shot dead in police operation in London  • Platini's temporary ban from duties remains in place: CAS  • Hopes high for tougher IPR protection in China  • Xi stresses "precision" poverty relief  • 1st LD: Alibaba announces acquisition of HK's SCMP Group media assets  • Zimbabwe's Mugabe praises China for rejuvenating Africa's heart  • French PM warns about "civil war" if far-rightists win regional election  • China to launch 10 pilot reforms for SOEs in 2016  • Urgent: Alibaba announces acquisition of HK's South China Morning Post  • Xi congratulates Turkmenistan on anniversary of status of permanent neutrality  
You are here: 　 Home

Manchester to be epicenter as Britons decide fate in Europe

Xinhua, December 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

The eyes of the world will focus on Manchester when the result of Britain's future within the European Union is announced.

The city has been chosen as the place where the final result of the in-out referendum will be announced, Britain's Electoral Commission has announced.

Regional votes from England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland as well as Gibraltar, will be fed to a central point in Manchester where the formal declaration will be announced by chief counting officer Jenny Watson live to a global audience after all the results have been counted and collated.

No date has yet been set for the national referendum, but Prime Minister David Cameron has announced it will be before the end of 2017. Some commentators speculate it could be held during 2016.

At stake will be Britain's continued membership of the European Union, in what will be one of the most important decisions Britons will make in a generation.

Although no venue has yet been selected for the referendum count, the same venue in Manchester will also be where the regional count collation center for the counting of votes from across North West England. Across the country there will be 11 other region count collation centers, with the results from each sent to the chief counting officer in Manchester, who will oversee the collation of the votes and certify the overall result as accurate before making the final announcement.

Counting of the votes will be counted overnight, which means the result will be known early the next morning.

Manchester city council chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein said: "Manchester is honored to have been chosen as the venue for this important democratic event in which there will be worldwide interest. We look forward to hosting the Electoral Commission and working with them to help deliver a successful event."

With campaigns already underway by both the "in" and "out" camps, Cameron is currently renegotiating Britain's membership terms with European counterparts, after which he will put the results of his discussions to the nation.

It is 40 years since Britons last voted on continued membership of what was then called the EEC -- the European Economic Community, or better known at the time as the Common Market. In that vote almost 17.4 million people, or 67 percent of those who voted, chose to stay in. The other 33 percent, almost 8.5 million, voted to leave. Almost two thirds of all Britons voted in the 1975 referendum which had been called by then then prime minister Labor's Harold Wilson. Endit