Hopeful accused of trying to dupe voters

Former SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson has been accused of misleading voters over claims Holyrood’s proportional list system is used to “determine the winning party and who can become first minister”.

Mr Robertson, a former Moray MP who is standing in the Edinburgh Central constituency at next month’s Scottish Parliament election, made the claim in a leaflet sent out to members of the public this week.

He told voters: “You have two votes in the Scottish Parliament election: The first for your constituency MSP, and the second that determines the winning party and who can become first minister.

“As your local SNP candidate, I would be honoured if you would vote for me with your first vote and cast your second vote for the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon as first minister.”

Under Holyrood’s Additional Member System, the public is given two votes: one to select a single candidate to represent their constituency and another for the party or people they would like to represent their region.

To create a more balanced parliament in line with the country’s views, each party’s regional vote is divided by one more than the number of seats it has won so far in that region, including constituencies.

This means the more constituency seats a party returns, the fewer list seats it will win.

The rough regional vote share required for each seat is typically around 5-6%.

There is no option for voters to directly choose who they want as first minister and it is not correct to say that the list vote necessarily determines the winning party.