The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Easy wins for SNP, but battle far from over
HOLDS: Comfortable victories in Dundee and Angus
The SNP partially retained its hold on Dundee and Angus yesterday with comfortable wins for two incumbent MSPS.
Joe Fitzpatrick won a third term as Dundee City West’s MSP while Mairi Gougeon, pictured, comfortably retained her seat in Angus North and Mearns.
Both politicians were among several SNP candidates to hold their seats, in what was overall a good day for Nicola Sturgeon’s party.
However, with some constituencies still to be counted today, when the crucial regional list results will also be declared, the SNP’S hopes of a Holyrood majority still hang in the balance.
Nicola Sturgeon’s hope for an outright victory at Holyrood was pegged back despite major wins for the SNP in target seats across the country.
The party picked up landmark victories from Labour and Conservatives but tactical unionist voting appears to have blunted the necessary SNP surge.
The second and final day of counting is getting under way.
Results will include the proportional regional lists – which could make all the difference for the balance of power.
Conservatives, despite some failures in constituencies, are expected to strengthen their presence in the North East and Highlands.
Labour, which had a poor day yesterday, need a major turnaround to overtake their rivals for second place.
The SNP yesterday held on in seats the party was defending, and even increased the majority in Moray which had been considered a tough contest.
Down the coast in Banffshire and Buchan, the Tories came close to beating their nationalist rivals.
Elsewhere, the SNP mopped up across the Highlands, Western Isles, Dundee and in Tayside.
Deputy First Minister John Swinney saw off a Tory challenge in Perthshire North.
The SNP scored a historic win in Ayr, where the Tories were beaten, and in East Lothian, punting Labour off the map there for the first time since the first election to the devolved parliament in 1999.
Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie made advances to retain North East Fife while his party fell short of the top target in Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, which went to the SNP.
But it was Labour’s stubborn win in Dumbarton yesterday evening which appeared to signal that the SNP majority might be thwarted.
Last night, Ms Sturgeon said recovery is the focus of what is certain to be another SNP government.
However, she also repeated her desire for another independence referendum.
“My focus, if we are reelected as the government, is to get back to work to steer the country through the crisis and into recovery,” she said after convincingly winning in Glasgow Southside.
“That remains the case. But once the crisis is over, and if there is a majority in the parliament for an independence referendum, people should have the right to choose our future. Scotland’s future should always be in Scotland’s hands.”
Speaking about the prospect of winning an overall majority, the SNP leader said: “It’s certainly not impossible, but nor is it guaranteed.
“That was always going to be on a knife edge, it comes down to a small number of votes in a small number of seats, so at this midway point it is certainly still there as a possibility, but I have never taken that for granted.
“It is a long shot, to say the least, in a PR system, to win a majority, you effectively have to break the system.
“I would like to do it, but I have never been complacent about that.”
There are still some knife-edge contests going on around the country.
Aberdeenshire West is now the main SNP target against the Conservative defender.
Seats in Mid Scotland and Fife are still to declare including Angus South, and Perthshire South and Kinross-shire.
With 47 constituency results declared yesterday, the SNP had 38 seats, Liberal Democrats four, Conservatives three and Labour two.
“It is a long shot, to say the least, in a PR system, to win a majority, you effectively have to break the system