The UK has voted overwhelmingly to reject changing the way MPs are elected - dealing a bitter blow to Nick Clegg on top of heavy Lib Dem poll losses.
Officials say 19.1m people voted in the second UK-wide referendum in history - a higher than expected turnout of 41%.
With votes still being counted, the No campaign is on course to get 69%.
It comes as the Lib Dems suffered a rout in English local elections - and the SNP scored an historic victory in the Scottish Parliament poll.
Alex Salmond's party will form a majority government - humbling Labour in one of its traditional heartlands and paving the way for a referendum on Scottish independence.
Labour made significant gains in town halls in the north of England and in the Welsh assembly elections, it fell just short of an absolute majority.
Labour also held Leicester South in a Parliamentary by-election with an increased majority, although the Lib Dems hung on to second place. Sir Peter Soulsby, whose decision to stand down triggered the contest, won the contest to be Leicester mayor.
A debate that was often about the complexity of electoral systems ended in the simplest of results.
The No campaign won, overwhelmingly.
The rush to attribute blame, or grab the credit for that result, begins here.
Those who favoured the Yes campaign will argue they were defeated by the Prime Minister's campaigning power, a largely hostile press and a tough opposing campaign.
Those who backed a No vote will say they won the argument for the merits of the status quo, and persuaded people the alternative vote was complex and unnecessary.
The voters, of course, needed only to mark crosses on ballot papers. They did not have to explain their reasoning.
So campaigners who devoted months of their lives to this argument will never know what difference, if any, they made to the result.
The Conservatives managed to make significant gains too - with their Lib Dem coalition partners apparently bearing the brunt of public anger over spending cuts at English local elections.
And there was a double blow for Lib Dem leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg - who saw his dream of ditching Britain's first-past-the-post electoral system comprehensively dashed.
Mr Clegg said: "I wish I could say this was a photo finish but it isn't, the result is very clear. I'm a passionate supporter of political reform but when the answer is as clear as this, you have got to accept it."
"This is a bitter blow for all those people, like me, who believe in the need for political reform."
Counting is likely to continue in the AV referendum for some time - but more than 9,873,000 No votes have already been counted - the 50% threshold after which the Yes campaign cannot win.
The official result will not be announced until all results have been declared.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13297573
"This is a bitter blow for all those people, like me, who believe in the need for political reform."
Got that for you;
"This is a bitter blow for all those people, like me, who believe we'll never get into power unless the voting system is rejigged in a way that favours us..."
