SCOTS will have to wait until next week before they can find out the result of tomorrow’s vote.
No-one EU country is allowed to declare the result until all EU countries are finished voting.
The last polling stages should close their doors at around 10pm on Sunday.
READ MORE: EU election: A list of every candidate in Scotland standing for MEP
In the rest of the UK, counting will get under way at around 7pm. This will allow returning officers to reveal the result as soon after 10pm as they can.
In Scotland, however, the result won’t be declared until Monday lunchtime. That’s because on the Western Isles there’s no counting of votes on the Sabbath.
While most other local authorities in Scotland will start counting on Sunday night after polling stations close, council staff in the Outer Hebrides won’t start their count until Monday morning.
Because the whole of Scotland is classed as a regional constituency in the European elections, it’s impossible for the result to be declared until all votes are in.
There has been a slowish change in the way the Sabbath is observed on Harris and the Isle of Lewis in the last decade.
There has been some loosening of the convention – you can now get ferries seven days a week, for instance, and you can find some pubs and a couple of shops open on the island as well.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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