ALBA will hold their leadership hustings behind closed doors – despite contender Ash Regan’s past demands for openness during her ill-fated run to lead the SNP.
There will be online hustings and events in Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Inverness and Perth – with the media barred from attending all.
During the 2023 SNP leadership race, Regan demanded the media be allowed access.
She said: “The media have a job to do, and as candidates, we have a duty to be held to scrutiny.
“I firmly believe we should allow access and ask that the media carry the proceedings fairly and fully – making them available to all.”
After pressure, the SNP eventually allowed the media access.
Alba’s online hustings take place between March 3 and 9 and dates for the in-person events will be announced “in due course”, the party said.
The party is electing a new leader and deputy leader following the death of Alex Salmond last year. Results will be announced on Wednesday, March 26 at a venue in Edinburgh.
Nominations will open this Sunday and close on March 2. Members registered before February 9 this year will be eligible to vote.
To be nominated as a candidate for either position, a candidate must receive 100 nominations from at least 20 local authority areas out of 32 across Scotland.
So far, only Regan and Kenny MacAskill (below), who lost his Westminster seat at the last election, have put themselves forward for the top job.
The elections will use the single transferrable vote system, where voters rank candidates in order of preference.
Former SNP MSP Mike MacKenzie, who defected to Alba in 2021, and Lynn McMahon, one of the party’s Glasgow region candidates in the last Holyrood election, will be the returning officers.
Online ballots will be sent out to members on March 10 and are to be returned before midday on Tuesday, March 25.
