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| - Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon on Friday vowed "the choice of a better future" as her party eyed a return to government and a push for another independence vote, despite London's opposition. Scots voted on Thursday for a new parliament, and Sturgeon's Scottish National Party (SNP) is hoping to win an outright majority, or at least return to power with support from smaller parties. With final results not due until Saturday evening, Sturgeon stressed it was too early to tell the overall outcome as she addressed supporters in Glasgow after winning re-election in her own seat. "But at this stage I'm extremely happy that the SNP appears to be on course for a fourth consecutive election victory and to be on course to have the privilege of forming a government again," she said. "And if that is indeed the outcome of this election, I pledge today to get back to work immediately to continue to steer this country through the crisis of Covid, to lead this country into recovery from Covid. "And then, when the time is right, to offer this country the choice of a better future." The SNP is seeking a pro-independence majority in the Edinburgh parliament to pressure British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to permit another referendum on splitting from the UK, after most Scots voted in 2014 to stay in. But Johnson has resisted such calls, arguing the 2014 vote was "once in a generation". As the first of 129 Scottish Parliament seats declared Friday afternoon, there were no early upsets but tentative signs of some possible tactical voting by pro-union voters in the most competitive constituencies. However, political pundits predicted a strong SNP showing, alongside Conservative gains in England, could intensify pressure on the UK's constitutional cohesion. jit/phz
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