Election 2021: Greens and Lib Dems could make comeback in South Scotland

SOUTH Scotland could be on track to elect its first Green and Lib Dem MSPs in more than a decade. Laura Moodie, who is the Scottish Green Party's lead candidate in the region, was optimistic today as early results have shown an increase in vote share for the party. On the list ballot in Dumfriesshire, they have received the fourth most votes, however, a result will not be known until counting is complete in all nine constituencies.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Liberal Democrats stand a chance of electing their first MSP in South Scotland since 2011. But whether lead candidate Catriona Bhatia will secure a seat at Holyrood depends on how voters across the entire region have cast their second ballot. Speaking today, Laura Moodie said: "We're trying to keep calm and just adjust and see how things are going. It's very hard to tell from what's coming out there. We know from counts across the region that our vote is up but as we know the maths might not play in our favour. "We hope our activists have done enough to get the vote out and get us over the line this time, we only narrowly missed-out last time. "We've been actively campaigning in Galloway for quite a long time now and I think that we have our own voters that are conscious about the climate emergency and the need to act on that." The list result for Dumfriesshire, announced earlier, is as follows: Abolish the Scottish Parliament: 151 Alba Party: 292 All For Unity: 778 Freedom Alliance: 76 Independent Green Voice: 163 Reform UK: 85 Scotia Future: 15 Conservatives: 17,561 Scottish Family Party: 134 Scottish Green Party: 1,376 Scottish Labour Party: 4,834 Scottish Libertarian Party: 44 SNP: 14,301 UKIP: 82 Vanguard Pary: 10