Scottish Election 2021 results LIVE: SNP finish one short of a majority on 64 | Scottish Conservatives hold key seat of Aberdeenshire West | Alex Salmond fails to win seat | Kaukab Stewart becomes first woman of colour elected to Scottish Parliament | Full regional vote list announced
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As Day Two of the election count continues, stay up-to-date with The Scotsman election live blog.
Scottish Parliament elections 2021 LIVE: SNP win election with 64 seats - one short of majority
Key Events
- SNP win election with 64 seats - one short of majority
- Sturgeon hails ‘emphatic’ victory
- Tories second with 31 seats, Labour third with 22
- No seats for Salmond’s Alba party
- Police investigate possible voter fraud in Edinburgh
- Kaukab Stewart becomes first woman of colour elected
Scottish Conservatives hold Galloway And West Dumfries
Galloway And West Dumfries had been an SNP target seat at this election, but the Tories have been re-elected there.
Emma Harper, the SNP candidate increased her party’s vote share by more than 2,000 votes, despite courting controversy with her comments over the possibility of a border between England and a newly-independent Scotland.
SNP hold Glasgow Cathcart
The SNP’s James Dornan has been re-elected in Glasgow Cathcart - one of the party’s safest seats .
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The Scotsman analysis: Did the Salmond inquiry damage Sturgeon?
For opponents, the Alex Salmond inquiry was meant to be the defining failure of Nicola Sturgeon.
It saw a First Minister doused in scandal due to her government’s failure to adequately handle sexual harassment allegations against one of the most high profile politicians in Scotland’s history.
For Ms Sturgeon, it was close to six months of intense scrutiny of her actions, accusations of failures and criminal leaks within her party and misconduct on her own behalf.
The inquiry became increasingly political, with the Scottish Conservatives and Scottish Labour keen to gain as much political capital as possible ahead of such a key election.
But did it work? Read the full story:
Scottish election 2021 results: Did the Alex Salmond inquiry damage Nicola Sturgeon and the SNP?
For opponents, the Alex Salmond inquiry was meant to be the defining failure of Nicola Sturgeon.
SNP take highest ever vote tally
The SNP’s vote tally now stands at 1,066,858 votes - the highest ever recorded for any party in a Holyrood election.
Ivan McKee, SNPThis election adds huge pressure on to Boris Johnson to respect the will of the people of Scotland. He is not someone who is known for sticking to his guns, and I fully expect that pressure is such, he will not want to, or be able to, ignore them.
