Slow start to historic Scottish, Welsh elections

LONDON -- Historic elections to re-shape the constitutional map of Britain got under way slowly yesterday, with voters asked to elect the first Scottish parliament in three centuries, and a Welsh assembly.

In what has been dubbed "Super Thursday," some 30 million Britons were also voting in local elections that are as big a test of the fragmented opposition Conservatives as a mid-term referendum on Prime Minister Tony Blair's government.

First results from Scotland and the municipal elections were expected soon after they closed at 10pm, and from Wales this morning.

For Scotland and Wales, the ballots are part of a sweeping constitutional change promised by Blair.

The vote for Scotland's 129-seat assembly is a two-way battle between nationalists and Labour .

Labour is expected to win comfortably, but new opinion polls suggested it will fail to get an absolute majority, forcing a likely coalition with the Liberal Democrats.

It would make the separatist Scottish National Party (SNP) of Mr Alex Salmond a sizeable opposition, enshrining its position at the heart of a new Scotland, and giving it a permanent platform from which to campaign for independence. -- Sapa-AFP