Humza Yousaf has the "power to govern" without calling a Holyrood election, his campaign manager has insisted.
Neil Gray, who oversaw the Health Secretary's succesful bid to succeed Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader, said MSPs would have the chance to vote today on who should be First Minister.
It comes as Anas Sarwar repeated his call for an early Holyrood election after he questioned Yousaf's mandate to rule the country.
Gray insisted today said the new leader already has the “power to govern”.
"The democratically elected MSPs who choose the first minister through a ballot in the Scottish Parliament have that opportunity to do so today," he told BBC Radio Scotland.
"This is a different situation than what we faced when Gordon Brown took over from Tony Blair, for instance, where there wasn’t an election or, indeed, the various Conservative leaders who have been elected by the party over the last few years.
"I think Humza has a very clear mandate, I think that will be earned by his election today, and he absolutely has the power to govern going forward.”
Support from the Scottish Greens in Holyrood – pledged in the hours after Yousaf’s victory – is expected to usher him into Bute House with little controversy.
Opposition politicians can put themselves up to become first minister in the Tuesday afternoon session at Holyrood, but they face long odds to win the contest.
Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross will be his party’s nominee and his focus would be on the NHS, the cost-of-living crisis, the economy and education.
One of the first big tests for Yousaf is his approach to gender reforms passed by Holyrood but blocked by the UK Government in January.
He has repeatedly said he would challenge that move in court and seek to put the controversial Bill on to the statute book – although in the latter phases of the SNP leadership campaign he said he would not push ahead with a challenge if legal advice said it could not be won.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn described the move to block the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill as a “democratic blocker”, while his deputy Mhairi Black said the legislation is “not controversial”, claiming “a lot of the criticisms of it, I think, are based on misinformation or people not having an idea of what the full picture is”.
Gray, who was singled out for thanks by Yousaf in his acceptance speech and described as his “corner man”, added: "i think there is an important principle at stake here.
“Of course he is going to listen to the legal advice – he has to do that – but there is an important principle at stake which is about the democracy and the democratic mandate given to the Scottish Parliament that must be defended.
“A two-thirds majority passed the Gender Recognition Bill in the Scottish Parliament.
“We must defend Scottish democracy and devolution. Otherwise, what is the point?”
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