Glasgow: Millions of Scots were deciding their future — and that of the United Kingdom — but there are still thousands agonising over whether it’s a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’.

Opinion polls say that as many as 600,000 voters remained undecided, making the vote far too close to call. Polls close at 10pm local time, and the result should be known by 6am.

The question? Should Scotland be an independent country?

Standing outside a polling station in Govan, Glasgow, with their bags of shopping at their feet, Angela Colquhoun and Helen-Marie Tasker say they are “absolutely gobsmacked” because polling day has come and they have still not decided how to vote.

“I’ve watched all the debates but you get no answers,” says Colquhoun, 41, a nursing auxiliary. She raises concerns about currency and pensions.

“One of the upsides of being independent is the oil money, but that won’t last forever.”

Tasker, 33, a working mother, is likewise uncertain. “It’s been going on for two years and nobody can give you a straight answer. I think [UK Prime Minister] David Cameron should’ve been telling us the positives of staying in the UK. I do wonder if it’s just scare stories, but there’s no going back after this.”

Colquhoun says she’ll spend another few hours thinking about it and come back to vote later.

“People are scared about what’s going to happen. They might vote no to stick with the known, but that’s not a good enough reason.”

Others had no second thoughts.

“It’s done,” Tommy Doyle told Gulf News after leaving a polling station in East Kilbride. “Yes. I have no regrets. Yes.”

When a polling station at the local church opened, at 7am there were seven voters waiting to cast their vote.

Voters don’t have to produce any identification to vote, although their name is checked against the list of registered voters

According to officials, 4,285,323 Scots aged 16 and upwards have registered to vote. That’s 97 per cent of the full number of Scots who could do so. And turnout is expected to exceed 80 per cent.

Tom Dumphie, 59, was first in the queue at the Mill of Mains primary school polling station in Dundee.

“I was surprised — there were five or six in the line by the time I voted,” he told The Guardian. “This is going to be important not just for us but our kids and grandkids. But the atmosphere is friendly. I don’t think there’ll be tensions here.”

In Strichen, near Aberdeen, Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond cast his vote for ‘yes’ shortly after 9am. He was accompanied by two first-time voters, Natasha McDonald and Lia Pirie.

In East Kilbride, Tina McFarlane told Gulf News she was voting for the first time. “Yes,” the 17-year-old student said.

The first results expected around 2am local time, with Eilean Siar, North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, Orkney, East Lothian, Perth and Kinross, and Moray vying to be the first local authority to declare. The final result is based on a cumulative total of all voters.

A simple majority ‘yes’ would end the 307-year-old union between Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It would also set the stage for unprecedented change and 18 months of tough negotiations between Edinburgh and London. Salmond wants independence to take effect on March 26, 2016.

A simple majority ‘no’ would also bring change, Westminster says, promising more tax and spend powers for the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh.

The three main political parties in the UK, however, have been unable to agree on the exact nature of those devolved powers.

— With inputs from agencies