Voters in Scotland will elect 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament. This will determine who will become First Minister.

All results are expected by around 7pm.

SNP Set to Become Biggest Party:

The SNP has won 59 of the 69 constituency seats declared so far. The final four constituency seats are still to be counted and announced. The 56 regional list seats will then be allocated after that.

The Scottish Greens have won their first ever Holyrood constituencies, beating SNP’s Angus Robertson in Edinburgh Central and taking Nicola Sturgeon’s former constituency, Glasgow Southside.

Lib Dems have also stole 2 seats from SNP in Edinburgh Northern and Strathkelvin and Bearsden. However they lost their Shetland seat, which they have held since the first Holyrood elections in 1999.

Labour’s Jackie Baillie held Dumbarton, which she has also served since 1999, and the party took 2 seats from SNP in Na h-Eileanan an Iar and Edinburgh Southern.

SNP’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn won Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine and will now have to step down from Westminster to take up his seat at Holyrood.

SNP Beat Reform by 1% in Banff and Buchan

SNP have scraped a seat in Banff and Buchan, beating Reform by only 1%.

SNP won a vote share of 35% and Reform came a close second with 34%.

Scottish Labour Concede Defeat

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar has effectively conceded defeat after only seven seats have been declared.

Speaking at an election count in Glasgow, Sarwar said Scottish Labour is “hurting” after the party “didn’t win the argument” in the Holyrood election.

He continued:

“Those who seek to divide us and use people with frustrations to divide us are going to win the day today”.

“My party is hurting – we’re disappointed, we advocate for change, we didn’t win that argument, but it’s my job to hold us together and that’s a job I intend to do.”

First Minister John Swinney HOLDS Seat in Perthshire North

SNP secure another seat with John Swinney getting 16,414 votes.

Vote share for SNP is 45.4% down 4.3% since the last election.

Turnout is down again by 11.4% since 2021 and now sits at 58.1%.

This reflects what we are seeing across most of Scotland currently with SNP holding seats but with lower vote share.

SNP Win Dundee City East

SNP have secured another seat in the Scottish Parliament, winning Dundee City East. 

Elected MSP Stephen Gethins of the SNP is a sitting MP for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry after winning the 2024 general election. 

In December 2024, Holyrood MSP’s voted to ban dual mandates. One cannot be an MP and MSP, meaning Gethins will have to give up his Westminster seat. 

This will trigger a by-election in Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.

SNP Win Dundee City West

The first Scottish Election results are in. SNP’s Heather Anderson has won Dundee City West.

The former Member of European Parliament has a majority of 6,357, however BBC Scotland reported that “the turnout is down.”

There was only a 46% voter turnout. The 2021 election had a 56.6% turnout.

Anderson managed to secure 12,722 of the votes. The results were:

  • SNP- 12,722
  • Conservatives – 881
  • Lib Dems – 1,980
  • Reform UK – 3,315
  • Labour – 6,365
  • TUSC – 649

Compared with the last 2021 Scottish Parliament election results in Dundee City West, the SNP vote dropped significantly but the party still comfortably held their seat.

Heather started her political career with the SNP in 2022 after being elected to the Dundee City council for the Coldside ward, a seat she still holds. 

She recently spoke to The Jute Journal about the problems facing Dundee University. She said:

“There are very, very specific problems with the University of Dundee around transparency and governance.” 

She spoke to the importance of the University of Dundee to the wider community in the city.  

“About one in five of the population are students. So we have to make sure that students know they’re welcome in Dundee, and that it’s the best place to come.” 

The other Dundee constituency results are still being counted. Results will be reported as soon as possible.

A reminder: the Scottish Parliament has 129 members, known as MSPs. There are 73 constituency MSPs and 56 regional MSPs. A party needs 65 seats to secure a majority.