SCOTLAND'S First Minister Alex Salmond says Scots will vote on September 18 next year in a referendum on whether the country should be independent.
Announcing the long-awaited date for the ballot, Salmond said it would be the "historic day when the people will decide Scotland's future".
Salmond, whose Scottish National Party (SNP) will campaign hard for a "yes" vote, announced the date to the country's parliament in Edinburgh as the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill was published.
Voters will be asked the yes/no question: "Should Scotland be an independent country?"
London's political parties, including Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservatives, want Scotland to stay in the United Kingdom, arguing its 5.3 million people are better off within the Union.
Salmond said the people of Scotland would have a genuine choice in the ballot.
"Next year the choice facing the people is one of two futures. A 'no' vote means a future of governments we didn't vote for, imposing cuts and policies we didn't support. A 'yes' vote means a future where we can be absolutely certain, 100 per cent certain, that the people of Scotland will get the government they vote for," he said.
But Johann Lamont, leader of the opposition Scottish Labour party, which wants Scotland to remain part of the United Kingdom, said: "The truth is, Alex Salmond knows if he held the referendum now, he wouldn't just lose it, he would be routed."
The Scottish government has brought in separate draft legislation to allow 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in the referendum.
Alistair Darling, Britain's former finance minister and the leader of the campaign for a "no" vote, said the SNP was waiting until autumn 2014 to hold the vote because it knew it would lose if it was held this year.
"The only reason (for waiting) until 2014 is because Alex Salmond is hoping something will turn up," he told Sky News. "He keeps talking about 'a journey', but his car is pretty much stalled on the starting line."
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