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nicola sturgeon by Colin Mearns Glasgow’s SNP MSPs have all said they will be pushing ahead for a second independence referendum. The city re-elected thenationalists in all eight seats once again as the party won another election in Glasgow and across Scotland. After two days of counting at the Emirates Arena, the election map in Glasgow is exactly the same as it was in 2016. While there are four new MSPs representing the city, the results for each party were the same as five years ago. The SNP once again won all eight constituency seats. In the regional list the arithmetic to decide who get the seats based on proportionality produced the same result as it did at the last election.
Nicola Sturgeon applauded Stewart as she arrived at the count to congratulate her new parliamentary colleague. She said: “I have never wanted to hug someone so much in my life,” the First Minister said, adding she was “thrilled beyond words” at the result. “It has taken us far too long, more than 20 years, but today she becomes the first woman of colour to be elected to our national Parliament,” she said. “Party politics aside this is a really special and a very significant moment for Scotland and I could not be prouder right now.” Glasgow Kelvin had been a key seat for the SNP to hold – and Stewart comfortably saw off a challenge from the Green’s co-leader Patrick Harvie who was bidding to become the first from his party to win a constituency seat in Scotland.
The SNP is the only party to have secured a majority in the 22-year history of the Scottish Parliament and - given polling over the past year - is hoping to repeat the feat.
In doing so, it had hoped to reinvigorate the campaign for a second referendum on Scottish independence, having pledged to launch an 11-point roadmap if a majority was secured.
And despite Ms Sturgeon s failure to win an outright majority she immediately called for another referendum claiming it was the will of the country .
Last year polls began to detect a surge in the number of Scots backing independence, with many showing a majority in favour of leaving the UK for the first time in years, but more recent surveys have suggested support has declined.