The Scottish Nationalist Party has won the most seats in the 2021 Scottish Parliament election, though failed to gain enough for an outright majority.
The pro-independence party, led by First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, has secured 64 seats - one short of the 65 needed for overall control of the devolved parliament in Holyrood - while the Conservatives have won 31, Labour 22, the Greens 8 and the Liberal Democrats 4.
Voters in Scotland went to the polls on Thursday, May 6 – a day that has earned the moniker of "Super Thursday" given the sheer number of elections taking place across the UK.
Many – including the London mayoral race and several English council elections – were due to take place last year, but were rescheduled on account of the coronavirus pandemic.
People in Scotland voted on Thursday for 129 MSPs to sit in the Scottish Parliament in Holyrood, with this number split between 73 that represent constituencies and 56 that represent eight regions of the country.
This means Ms Sturgeon would have needed to achieve at least 65 seats for a majority.
By late on Friday night it was clear Ms Sturgeon was headed for a Holyrood election win, her fourth consecutive victory in a row – but it is now clear she has missed out on an SNP majority she could have used to place pressure on Boris Johnson to drop his opposition to a second independence referendum.
The SNP has improved on its last showing, when it fell two short of a majority in the last election in 2016, having previously gained the first majority in the Scottish Parliament in 2011.
The SNP is the only party to have secured a majority in the 22-year history of the Scottish Parliament and - given polling over the past year - is hoping to repeat the feat.
In doing so, it had hoped to reinvigorate the campaign for a second referendum on Scottish independence, having pledged to launch an 11-point roadmap if a majority was secured.
And despite Ms Sturgeon's failure to win an outright majority she immediately called for another referendum claiming it was "the will of the country".
Last year polls began to detect a surge in the number of Scots backing independence, with many showing a majority in favour of leaving the UK for the first time in years, but more recent surveys have suggested support has declined.
Alex Salmond, once a major political force in Scotland but now bordering on electoral irrelevance, made a sensational return to politics when he announced in March that he had become leader of the pro-independence Alba Party to rival the SNP in the election.
The results show that Mr Salmond's gamble to elect even more pro-independence MSPs has not paid off, with Alba failing to gain a single seat.
Meanwhile both the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour - the next largest parties in the Scottish Parliament - have argued against another independence referendum.
Leaders of both parties have pointed to the even greater economic risks posed by independence in the context of the destruction caused by lockdown, while also suggesting the UK's successful vaccination rollout has proven the importance of the Union.
But even though the SNP has failed to secure a majority, it will be looking to see if third parties – such as the Greens – might be able to help it cross the line for a majority in Parliament. The Greens, who now have eight MSPs, have pledged to support the SNP if this is the case.
What time were the Scottish election results announced?
Due to Covid restrictions being implemented during the count process, results took longer to be confirmed.
A final declaration did not come until Saturday evening.
Here was a timetable of the Scottish election proceedings:
Friday, May 7
Counting started at 9am. It was difficult to predict how long this would take given hygiene and social distancing precautions slowing the count down.
The 'First Past The Post' votes (FPTP) for the 73 local representatives were counted first, with the results of 46 of these seats announced from lunchtime on Friday.
These were the seats which were announced on Friday with an estimated time of declaration where applicable:
- Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen Donside and Aberdeenshire
- East Airdrie & Shotts (declaration time of noon)
- Angus North & Mearns (estimated time of 3.30pm)
- Argyll & Bute (5pm)
- Ayr (4pm)
- Banffshire & Buchan Coast
- Clackmannanshire & Dunblane (6pm)
- Clydebank & Milngavie
- Coatbridge & Chryston (noon)
- Cowdenbeath (1pm)
- Cunninghame North and Cunninghame
- South Dumbarton
- Dundee City
- West East Lothian
- Eastwood (4pm)
- Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh Southern and Edinburgh Western
- Ettrick, Roxburgh & Berwickshire (6.30pm)
- Falkirk East
- Fife North East (4pm)
- Glasgow
- Anniesland, Glasgow Maryhill & Springburn, Glasgow Pollo and Glasgow Southside
- Greenock & Inverclyde
- Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse
- Inverness & Nairn (7pm)
- Kilmarnock & Irvine Valley (5pm)
- Kirkcaldy (1pm)
- Linlithgow Midlothian
- North & Musselburgh (5.30pm)
- Moray
- Motherwell & Wishaw
- Na h-Eileanan an Iar
- Orkney Islands
- Paisley (6pm)
- Perthshire North
- Renfrewshire North & West Rutherglen
- Shetland Islands
- Stirling
- Strathkelvin & Bearsden
Saturday, May 8
The remaining 27 FPTP seats were announced on Saturday.
These included:
- Aberdeen South & Kincardine North
- Aberdeenshire West
- Almond Valley
- Angus South Caithness, Sutherland & Ross
- Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley (5pm)
- Clydesdale
- Cumbernauld & Kilsyth
- Dumfriesshire
- Dundee City East
- Dunfermline (1pm)
- East Kilbride
- Edinburgh Eastern
- Edinburgh Northern & Leith and Edinburgh Pentlands
- Falkirk West
- Fife Mid & Glenrothes (1pm)
- Galloway & West Dumfries
- Glasgow Cathcart, Glasgow Kelvin, Glasgow Provan, Glasgow Shettleston
- Midlothian South, Tweeddale & Lauderdale (6.30pm)
- Perthshire South & Kinross-shire
- Renfrewshire South (3pm)
- Skye, Lochaber & Badenoch Uddingston & Bellshill
People in Scotland voted for 129 MSPs and as of Saturday evening all have now been declared.
About our results
Our results data are provided by the Press Association. Changes are calculated against a council's or parliament's composition at the time of the election, rather than against the composition resulting from the previous election. The Press Association only collates results for elections already scheduled to take place for May 6, 2021, so some council by-elections may not feature in our data.
