When is referendum result announced?

Votes in Thursday’s EU referendum in the UK will be counted by hand once polls have closed after 22.00 UK time.

All of the 382 local counting stations will add up the ballots and will firstly announce the local turnout – this is likely to happen anytime between 23.30 on Thursday night and 3.00 the Friday morning.

Then they will count the votes and announce the total for ‘remain’ and ‘leave’ for their area. According to the Electoral Commission – which has estimated times at electoralcommission.org.uk (scroll down for the spreadsheet at 'How and when results will be announced') – the announcements will be made through the early hours, with the last one about 7.00.

Votes from each council will be collated at 12 regional centres, then an announcement of the nationwide total will be made at Manchester Town Hall, around ‘breakfast time’ by Jenny Watson, the Chief Counting Officer.

Prime Minister David Cameron is expected to address the nation on the Friday morning once it is known whether the UK has voted for a ‘Brexit’ or to ‘Remain’.

There will be no official exit poll, though reportedly financial traders will be paying for private ones to allow them to bet on the outcome – which in turn may have knock-on effects on the markets, perhaps giving an indication of what the result will be.
• If your postal ballot was lost then one final option might be applying by email for an emergency proxy vote (allowed up until 17.00 on polling day) – which was allowed by certain councils at last year’s general election. Having said this, in theory only certain, limited circumstances are specified for this. See more at this link: Proxy votes.