Just champion
Former athlete Alison Johnstone MSP appointed as Presiding Officer
MSP FOR LOTHIAN, Alison Johnstone, was the sole nominee for the role of Presiding Officer at The Scottish Parliament and was voted in by majority, the second woman to take up the position.
The ballot is secret, so no-one can be sure which political party or individual MSPs voted against her election, but there were 97 politicians who voted for her and 28 who voted against. Curiously, the numbers of votes against with the three abstentions and a spoiled ballot add up to 31 which is the number of Conservative MSPs.
Previously a Green Party politician, Alison is now politically neutral and must remain impartial in her new role. Alison was an Edinburgh councillor, coming to that job after working with Robin
Harper, the first Green MSP. She fought off development on playing fields at Meggetland in her first political campaign. As an athlete - she was the East of Scotland 800 and 1500 metre champion - she saw the need to retain the sports field for training and exercising. She remains involved with Scottish Athletics and is on the board, but time for coaching has decreased in recent years.
Alison told us in an interview before the election that while the previous Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh, encouraged a more free flowing question session at First Minister's Question Time, in her view it still needs worked on to become more relaxed and to improve it.
She will be responsible for chairing all meetings in the Debating Chamber, selecting questions to be asked at First Minister's Question Time, chairing Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body meetings and chairing Parliamentary Bureau meetings. The Presiding Officer also represents the Parliament at home and abroad, and she will be supported in her role by two Deputing Presiding Officers, Liam McArthur the Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP for Orkney Islands, and Annabelle Ewing, SNP MSP for Cowdenbeath.
The Deputies continue to have party affiliation unless they are chairing proceedings in the chamber.
The numbers were important as the SNP have 64 MSPs - one short of a majority. They and the Conservatives were anxious not to give up any seats. But the pro-independence parties, the SNP and the Greens, have a majority between them if they need to use it. There is no formal coalition between the two but they are the parties most likely to vote together.
Despite his tireless campaign, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, Willie Rennie, lost one seat at Holyrood. With only five MSPs there is no guarantee Mr Rennie will be allowed any regular questions at First Minister's Questions as the LibDems are no longer big enough to be called a group.