Scottish elections 2021-Scottish National Party wins fourth consecutive term

 SNP wins 64 seats in the house of 129-just one short of overall majority

According to the final results of 129 seats of Scottish parliament- Scottish National Party (SNP) has won 64 seats to form the fourth consecutive government in Scotland. SNP has increased its tally of seats from 63 to 64. It fell short of just one seat to get overall majority in the parliament. SNP wins 03 more seats in constituency results but lost two in regional list. 

The Conservatives won 31 seats while Scottish Labour won 22 seats tow less than previous elections. Conservatives did lost one constituency seat but won one through regional list to keep the tally at 31.  Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar the son of current Punjab Governor Ch Sarwar who was elected MP for several times on labour Party ticket from Scotland has lost his seat against SNP leader and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon.

The Greens won 8 seats two more than last elections. The Liberal Democrats won 04 seats one less then last elections. The turnout was around 63%. 

 

This emphatic victory will give more confident to SNP leadership to call for a second referendum on Independence of Scotland from UK.Nicola Sturgeon declares independence vote 'will of Scotland' despite missing SNP majority.The First Minister said, with the pro-independence Greens set to pick up seats, Boris Johnson would not be able to deny Scots their right to an independence referendum in the next four years. She added: "The people of Scotland must have the right to decide our own future when the Covid crisis has passed.

Ironically, that's more or less the same position the SNP takes. They want an independence referendum in the next five years, but not until the pandemic is over. That time frame is relatively vague and any referendum talks could be years away.So the SNP may not actually approach the UK government on the referendum issue for some time.

More Women elected

The sixth  Scottish Parliament is going to be the most diverse yet. There will be more women than have ever been elected before, more disabled MSPs and more politicians from minority ethnic backgrounds.

A total of 58 female candidates have been successful. The previous high was 48, back in 1999.The SNP actively chose to replace MSPs who were standing down with female candidates where possible.

Labour too sought to promote women by zipping candidates, alternating men and women on their party list. Leader Anas Sarwar, who by rights should have topped the Glasgow list, ceded the top spot to Pauline McNeill to set an example. Four female MSPs with young children decided to stand down this year to find a better work-life balance.

Complicated Election System

 The Scottish voting system was specifically designed to prevent any one party having a majority in the 129-seat parliament - although the SNP did manage to do so in the 2011 election.

Scotland’s electoral system is known as the additional member system.

There are a total of 129 seats in Scottish Parliament – 73 constituency MSPs and 56 regional MSPs.

Each person gets a constituency vote and a regional vote.

The 73 constituency MSPs are elected on a first-past-the-post system, so the winner is the candidate who receives the most votes, in exactly the same way as MPs are elected to Westminster.

The system for the regional MSPs is slightly more complicated.

Scotland is split into the following eight regions:

Central Scotland

Glasgow

Highlands and Islands

Lothian

Mid-Scotland and Fife

North-east Scotland

South Scotland

West Scotland

Each of these regions has seven MSPs. Voters select a party, rather than candidates.

The parties are then allocated a number of MSPs proportionate to the portion of votes they received.

However, the number of constituencies parties have won in each region is also taken into account, and adjustments are made if necessary to make the result more proportional.

Each person in Scotland is therefore represented by eight MSPs – their constituency MSP and the seven MSPs for their region.

                                                          Khalid Bhatti