With all the election results in Scotland now in, the SNP retained its dominance of the Scottish Parliament taking 64 seats out of 129. The SNP will form the next Government under the leadership of Nicola Sturgeon, however, it is the Scottish Greens who had their best election yet with 8 seats. They are the power brokers.

The Scottish Parliament uses a system of Proportional Representation. There is a Constituency MSP elected by First Past The Post then additional MSPs are elected on a Regional distribution of votes.

The make up of the 2021 Scottish Parliament will be:

• SNP 64
• Tories 31
• Labour 22
• Scottish Greens 8
• Liberal Democrat 4

The result is a disaster for the Liberal Democrats who have been left with very little influence in the new Parliament.

Doubts were raised as to whether an election could be held during a pandemic but the electorate swept those fears aside as the turnout was the best ever at 63% – the highest for a Scottish Parliament election. Many had chosen to vote by post, in Orkney postal vote turnout was 87%.

On Thursday 13th of May all the MSPs will be sworn in and the Presiding Officer (PO) will be chosen by them in the afternoon. The PO ‘chairs’ sessions of the Parliament and so has to be neutral. Neither the SNP or Greens will give up a MSP for this role and neither will the Tories. It will be down to a choice of a Labour MSP or the Liberal Democrats. The LibDems will have so little influence now as a political party due to only having 4 members that it might be a good choice for them to go for.

The 2021 Scottish Parliament looks to being extremely interesting with the Covid19 pandemic still being dealt with, the prospect of a second referendum on Scottish Independence and the Climate Emergency. The attention of the world will be on Scotland in November when the UN Climate Change conference COP26 takes place in Glasgow.

Scotland has again elected a Parliament where a majority of its 129 MSPs support Scottish Independence, 72 , with the support for continued union with rUK at 57.

See also:

• Liam McArthur Retains Orkney For LibDems But Vote is Down
• May 2021 Scottish Parliament Elections Update #Orkney

To find out all the stats click on this link: Ballot Box Scotland

Across the UK elections were also held on Thursday May 6th for the Welsh Senedd, and local elections in England.

Welsh Senedd 2021 60 seats. Turnout 46.5%

• Labour 30
• Tories 16
• Plaid Cymru 13
• Liberal Democrats 1

Labour retain control, Mark Drakeford returned to lead the Welsh Government with an increased vote.

Other elections taking place: Local Elections England – 145 councils ; Mayoral Elections England – 13

London Assembly – 25

• Labour -11
• Tory – 9
• Greens – 3
• Liberal Democrats – 2

London Mayoral Election turnout 42.2%

Sadiq Khan, Labour elected

Reporter: Fiona Grahame