THE SNP may have lost target seats because pro-Union groups spent tens of thousands of pounds on digital ads pushing tactical voting, an investigation has revealed. The SNP and Scottish Greens won a total of 72 seats in Holyrood on a record turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections of 63% – 10% higher than the previous average. But an OpenDemocracy report found the party could have lost key seats, which prevented them from achieving an outright majority, due to social media adverts with a lack of transparency over funding. The site found a group called Young Unionists spent more than £20,000 on Facebook ads, including more than £5000 in the final days of the campaign. Tens of thousands of voters were pushed to the VoteUnion tactical voting tool.
DENYING the SNP an overall majority was a “collective effort” by Unionists, according to John Curtice. The polling expert was writing in The Scotsman after the SNP and Scottish Greens won a total of 72 seats in Holyrood on a record turnout for the Scottish Parliament elections of 63% – 10% higher than the previous average. Curtice said the SNP’s lack of an outright majority was because Unionist voters voted for a party in each constituency that had the potential to beat the SNP. He said: “Denying the SNP an overall majority was, indeed, a collective effort – at least on the part of Unionist voters, who on the constituency ballot demonstrated a remarkable willingness to back whichever pro-union party appeared to be best placed locally to defeat the SNP.”
The LibDems’ Alex Cole-Hamilton UNIONIST tactical voting saw the Conservatives, Labour and the LibDems all hold onto seats being challenged by the SNP as voters backed the party they believed had the highest chance of defeating Nicola Sturgeon’s party. Former Tory leader Jackson Carlaw was re-elected in Eastwood after Labour’s vote slumped by a massive 15% from 2016. Carlaw received 17,911 votes beating the SNP’s Colm Merrick who netted15,695. Labour got just 6759, taking third place. In the SNP target seats of Edinburgh Western and Edinburgh Southern unionist supporting voters also swung behind what they regarded as the strongest pro-UK party in the area.
Cowdenbeath, with a similarly slim SNP majority of 3,041, is a five-way contest between the SNP, Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens.
The scene at the 2021 Scottish election count at Michael Woods Sports Centre this morning (Pic: Jon Brady)
Kirkcaldy is also torn between five candidates from Labour, the Lib Dems, Tories, SNP and the Scottish Libertarian Party, fielding Calum Paul as one of their nine constituency candidates across Scotland.
Results are expected between 4:00pm and 6:00pm for all three seats. Tomorrow, Mid-Fife and Glenrothes will be counted at Rothesay House while Michael Woods will host the tallies for Dunfermline and the Mid-Scotland and Fife region.