The leaders of Scotland’s political parties have been casting their votes as Scotland goes to the polls.
Polling stations across the country opened on Thursday morning as Scots elect a new batch of MSPs to Holyrood.
Voters have until 10pm to cast their ballot in a contest that will decide who Scotland’s MSPs will be – as well as determining who will be first minister.
SNP leader John Swinney voted in Burrelton in Blairgowrie with his wife Elizabeth by his side.
Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar voted at Pollokshields Burgh Hall in Glasgow, accompanied by his wife Furheen and their two sons.
Malcolm Offord, Reform UK’s Scottish leader, cast his ballot at St James’ Church in Edinburgh.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton was at Davidson’s Mains Parish Church in Edinburgh to vote, accompanied by his wife Gill and dog Bramble.
Scottish Conservative leader Russell Findlay arrived by bicycle at the polling station in Cleveden Secondary School in Glasgow.
Gillian Mackay, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, voted at Laurieston Community Hall near Falkirk, accompanied by her partner Alex and their son.
A total of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament are up for grabs, with voters electing 73 constituency representatives and a further 56 MSPs via eight regional lists.
Unlike previous elections – other than 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic – votes will be counted on Friday rather than overnight, with the final result likely to be known by late Friday evening.
Campaigners have spent the past six weeks traversing the country in the hopes of winning the keys to Bute House.
Mr Swinney’s SNP has led the polls throughout the campaign.
He has told voters a majority for his party – a rarity in the Holyrood voting system – will allow him to put more pressure on Westminster to grant a second referendum on independence.
Before polls opened, he said the election was “Scotland’s opportunity to choose a better future by voting SNP for real action on the cost of living, to lock Nigel Farage out of power, and to secure a fresh start with independence”.
SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn – who is a candidate for Holyrood – also said the ballot offers people the prosect of the “fresh start of independence”.
Mr Flynn said: “The increasingly unaffordable cost of living in the UK has defined this election. Brexit Britain is broken – and Scotland is trapped in a never-ending cycle of soaring bills and constant chaos under Westminster control.
“The fresh start of independence is the opportunity Scotland can’t afford to miss.”
One of the unknowns ahead of Friday’s results is the fate of Reform UK.
The party has been polling well for the first time at Holyrood and looks poised to win at least a dozen seats, with one of the key battles being between Lord Offord’s party and Labour for second place.
Mr Sarwar however has insisted the polls – some of which put Labour in third place – were wrong and his party will defy the pollsters and pundits on Thursday, but it is a far cry from the success Labour experienced at the 2024 general election in Scotland.
The Scottish Labour leader cut ties with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in February, calling for him to stand down in the wake of the Peter Mandelson scandal, severing an alliance which had held since the two took over their respective parties north and south of the border.
The Scottish Greens and the Lib Dems look set for gains on Thursday, according to the polls, with the Greens forecast to be in the running to win their first-ever local constituency.
Ms Mackay said every vote for her party is a “vote for a fairer, greener and independent Scotland and to reject the hatred and division of Reform UK”.
She insisted: “We don’t have to accept a broken status quo. It’s time to demand better.”
Lib Dem Mr Alex Cole-Hamilton said his party has had a “sensational” campaign.
He told the Press Association on Thursday: “Turnout is going to be a massive factor. People talk about the ‘scunner factor’, but we haven’t actually encountered that in our seats.”
Meanwhile, forecasts suggest the Scottish Tories’ recent history of defying political gravity – initially engineered by former leader Baroness Ruth Davidson – which saw them grasp the unionist vote in Scotland and sit in second place for the past decade, could be over, with Russell Findlay’s party projected to shed votes and seats.
The campaign has been dominated by the cost of living, with the SNP pledging to cap bus fares and prices of supermarket essentials while Reform and the Scottish Tories have honed in on tax cuts.
Scottish Labour has also pitched tax cuts, but only if a Sarwar-led government can kickstart the economy.
