Salmond new SNP leader
Former SNP leader Alex Salmond has won a landslide victory to return to the post he resigned in 2000, taking 75 per cent of the SNP leadership election vote.
Mr Salmond gained 4,952 votes of around 6,500 cast to win on the first ballot, eclipsing rivals Roseanna Cunningham MSP, with 953 votes, and ex-MSP Mike Russell, with 631.
In the deputy leadership election, Mr Salmond’s running mate Nicola Sturgeon MSP also won on the first ballot, taking 3,521 votes – just over half of all votes cast. Her nearest opponent, Fergus Ewing MSP, gained 1,605 votes, and the other candidate, Christine Grahame, won 1,410.
The vote was hailed by outgoing SNP leader John Swinney as “historic”, as it was the first time the party’s leader had been elected by a ballot of all members.
The SNP has around 9,400 members, of whom nearly 80 per cent voted.
Mr Swinney pledged “unreserved support” to the new leadership.
