Greens and Ukip set sights on winning seats across country
SCOTLAND’ S smaller parties have set their sights on winning MSPs in every region of Scotland.
The Scottish Greens say this is the first election in which they have “a genuinely realistic chance” of winning in every region, and that they could go even further with more than 10 MSPs.
Ukip has also welcomed polls suggesting they could win up to seven seats.
The pro-independence Scottish Greens have seen a surge in membership since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014, but have picked up fewer votes in Scotland than Ukip in recent elections.
Eurosceptic unionist party Ukip is seeking to build on its 2014 European election success, which saw David Coburn become Ukip’s first Scottish parliamentarian, and capitalise on the proximity of the Scottish election to the European Union referendum just seven weeks later.
Both parties have focused their campaigns on the regional list ballot, which has a similar proportional representation counting system to the European Parliament election.
Scottish Green coconvener Patrick Harvie told the BBC’s Sunday Politics Scotland programme: “I think this is the first time that we have had a genuinely realistic chance of getting at least one MSP in every one of Scotland’s regions.
“That would be a fantastic step. I certainly think that we can get more than one in some regions.”
David Coburn, Ukip’s leader in Scotland, said: “According to the Survation poll in the Mail and in the Record, neither of whom are particularly friendly to Ukip, they say we’re going to get seven seats.”
“It’s a tactical decision. Quite frankly I want to see people vote for us in the lists, I want to get people’s first preference or indeed many people’s second preference, that would be fine.
“I think we’re getting a lot of second preference, from not only Labour voters, but SNP and disgruntled Conservatives who are opposed to the European Union.”
Mr Coburn also played down the behaviour of former Kirkcaldy candidate Jack Neill, who posted pictures of himself in a clown outfit with black face paint.
He said: “He’s a student, he’s young, he’s done something extremely stupid and simply didn’t realise the impact of what he was actually doing.
“It ain’t in the Ukip manifesto to sit in your bathtub naked, playing electric guitar, dressed as a clown.”