Six things to watch out for in the Scottish election

Key developments are emerging from the global stage. Six things to watch out for in the Scottish election6 hours ago Share Save Add as preferred on GooglePhil SimScotland political correspondentBBCBallot boxes arriving by ferry from the island of Bressay for the Shetland countThe campaigning is over, and votes have been cast. All that is left is to tally up the ballots and find out who has won the Scottish Parliament election. With local strongholds in the balance, familiar faces fighting to hold onto their seats and the future direction of Scottish politics at stake, every party has a part to play in this story.

What should we look out for through the day as the results start to come in? A simple guide to the Scottish electionHow to follow Scotland's election coverageWill there be an SNP majority? John Swinney has set a lofty goal for his SNP - winning an outright majority of 65 seats to try to force the issue of Scottish independence.

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Holyrood's electoral system makes this difficult. It includes 73 constituencies, elected first-past-the-post like seats at Westminster, as well as 56 more which use a form of proportional representation to balance things out. But there is, in theory, a narrow path for the SNP to win the required seats solely from the constituencies.

PA MediaJohn Swinney has set a goal of an SNP majorityThis would involve gaining ground from Labour and the Conservatives at the same time as avoiding losing any seats out of the back door to either Labour or the Lib Dems. A crucial question is whether the vote is splintered between those challenger parties, or whether there is more tactical voting on a seat-by-seat basis among voters with a shared aim of halting the SNP's charge. If the SNP does win a majority, we enter a whole other discussion about mandates and the UK government's ongoing opposition to a fresh independence poll.

But that's a big "if" which needs to be addressed before we go any further. Who will be first minister? Other than John Swinney, there is really only one leader who has consistently put their name forward to be first minister - Labour's Anas Sarwar.

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The prospect of an outright win for his party seems vanishingly distant, with Labour's struggles in government at Westminster having dragged them down in the Scottish polls. So the outcome of a Sarwar government relies on complex calculations of how Holyrood lines up post-election. If the SNP is short of a majority, the first question is how many Green MSPs there are.

Co-leaders Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay have been fairly clear that they'd be happy to put John Swinney back in power if they can cement a pro-independence majority. PA MediaAnas Sarwar has consistently put his name forward as first ministerIf they can't, the question becomes whether the unionist parties - the Lib Dems, the Tories, and Reform UK - could unite behind Sarwar to make him first minister instead. The prospect of this has sparked furious rows already, with claims that Sarwar was seeking a "grubby deal" with Reform's Scottish leader Malcolm Offord.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.