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Spotlight: Britain, EU relation on knife-edge as historic referendum closes

Xinhua, June 24, 2016 Adjust font size:

Ballot boxes are on the way to more than 380 count venues after the EU referendum in Britain closed at 10 p.m. local time (2100 GMT).

UKIP leader Nigel Farage said it "looks like Remain will edge it", reported Sky News shortly after polls closed.

"It's been an extraordinary referendum campaign, turnout looks to be exceptionally high and looks like Remain will edge it. UKIP and I are going nowhere and the party will only continue to grow stronger in the future," he said.

As no exit polls held tonight, the latest online pollster YouGov said 52 percent support to stay and 48 leave, after thousands of voters were questioned, according to Sky News.

Millions of Britons went to about 41,000 polling stations on Thursday to cast their ballots in the EU referendum on whether their country should remain in or leave the European bloc.

As the referendum started at 7 a.m. (0600 GMT), several polling stations opened late on as overnight downpours hit London and southeast England.

Local media said two polling stations were closed by Kingston Council because of flooding, and voters were instructed to cast their ballots at alternative locations. Another polling station in Dover had power outage due to storms.

Figures from different campaigns have been seen cast their votes on Thursday morning.

Meanwhile, sterling strengthened against the U.S. dollar, hitting around 1.48 on Thursday. This is a rise from the 1.40 point on June 16, and is now not far off the 1.54 rate in May last year when the decision to have a referendum was announced.

The results will be declared throughout the night, and the final result will be officially declared at Manchester Town Hall, probably around breakfast time on Friday.

Figures from the Electoral Commission showed a record of 46.5 million people are entitled to take part in the nationwide referendum of this country.

Britain joined what was the Common Market (EEC) in 1973 without a referendum, though in a national poll two years later the country voted by a margin of 2 to 1 to remain in the bloc.

The Remain side has constantly warned about the risk to the British economy and the threat to hundreds of thousands of jobs if Brexit win the referendum.

It will slam the door, they say, on a single market of over 500 million people, leaving Britain to arrange trade agreements not just with the EU, but around the world.

Brexit supporters say the 50 million pounds (about 75 million U.S. dollars) a day Britain pays to Europe can instead be used to boost the British economy and support the cash strapped National Health Service.

They also say the referendum is Britain's last chance to control its borders in the wake of massive immigration from poorer EU member states. Endit