Salmond hails wind of change as poll goes to wire

ALEX Salmond led from the front for the SNP this morning, taking his party's key target seat of Gordon from the Liberal Democrats as he attempted to sweep the Nationalists to victory in the Holyrood elections.

"There is a wind of change blowing through Scottish politics," the SNP leader declared in his victory speech as his party increased its share of the vote by almost 9 percentage points across Scotland on its 2003 result.

The SNP had other notable victories with Nicola Sturgeon winning Glasgow Govan for the first time in three attempts and the party picking up Central Fife, Dundee West, Kilmarnock and Loudon and Stirling from Labour. But it was far from clear whether the Nationalists had done enough to win the election.

The SNP failed to take other important Labour seats including Cumbernauld, where Labour was defending a majority of 500, Airdrie and Shotts and West Renfrewshire - all of which the SNP needed to take if it was to be absolutely sure of victory.

It secured swings of 7.6 per cent from Labour to win Central Fife and 10.6 per cent to win Gordon but the swings sizeable in some areas, slight in others, and Labour clawed back ground in constituencies where it had seemed vulnerable.

With the election in the balance, much attention was focused on serious problems with the new ballot papers used for the first time in this election.

A huge number of papers were rejected by returning officers all over the country, apparently because, in many cases, voters had not filled them out properly.

Early estimates suggested that as many as 100,000 ballot papers might have been rejected by the time the final votes are counted this afternoon.

David Cairns, the Scotland Office minister, promised an inquiry into a situation which Mr Salmond derided as "totally unacceptable" and "deeply mistaken".

Initial indications seemed to suggest that many voters did not understand the new voting forms, putting more than one cross on each of the ballot papers.

Turnout was slightly up on the 49 per cent of 2003, but that small success was negated by the problems with the ballot papers which effectively disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters.

The Strathkelvin and Bearsden count was postponed for a day because of "technical problems" and, by 4.30am there had been no results from Edinburgh, again because of technical problems.

Jack McConnell was returned as the first MSP of the Scottish Parliament last night winning his Motherwell and Wishaw constituency - but he suffered a swing of 7 per cent to the SNP.

Mr McConnell was aware that if the SNP swing was replicated throughout the country it would make it very difficult for Labour to be returned as the largest party. His majority was cut from 9,259 to less than 6,000 on a 50 per cent turnout.

He told supporters: "We have won the debate. It remains to be seen tonight whether we have won the votes in individual constituencies."

The second result to be declared was in another Labour heartland, Glasgow Kelvin, where Pauline McNeill, the Labour candidate was returned but with a reduced majority.

The swing to the SNP was 5 per cent which if replicated elsewhere would be enough to deliver a number of Labour seats to the SNP across the country.

The SNP made its first breakthrough in Dundee West. Joe Fitzpatrick, the SNP candidate secured a 6 per cent swing from Labour to take the seat.

But the overall result of the most important and tightly-fought Scottish election for a generation will not be known until later today after weather in the Highlands caused problems. A helicopter that should have taken ballot boxes to Stornoway was grounded by fog, delaying the Eilean Siar count and the Highlands and Islands regional list count until later today.

The loss of the count at Eilean Siar - expected to go from Labour to the SNP - and the Highlands and Islands regional list, meant that there would be eight seats left undecided until mid afternoon today.

The new counting machines meant that, although there were delays, it was easier for observers to see how the counts were developing.

And, using early indications as a guide, SNP leaders said they were hopeful of taking a clutch of traditional Labour seats, including Kilmarnock and Livingston and make big gains on regional lists.

Alex Salmond, the SNP leader, was confident his party would take Eilean Siar, a victory which might be evened up however, with Labour gaining an extra seat on the regional list in compensation. "I'd be extremely confident of the SNP's prospects of winning in the Western Isles," Mr Salmond said.

Labour leaders had been preparing for significant losses.

And Baroness Amos, a Labour peer, admitted that the 7 per cent swing to the SNP from Motherwell and Wishaw would be very damaging to Labour if carried through the rest of the country. "If this result is repeated across Scotland it is certainly bad news for us," she said.

Turnout looked to have been higher than the 49 per cent who voted in 2003, but although it was expected to be over 50 per cent, it appeared unlikely to have been the 60 per cent many hoped for.

The Tories secured their first success when they won Galloway and Upper Nithsdale. Alex Fergusson, the Conservative candidate increasing his majority by recording a swing of 5.3 per cent from the SNP.

The Liberal Democrats took Dunfermline West, a big win over Labour, but, having lost Gordon and being expected to lose Roxburgh and Berwickshire and Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, the party was not in line to make significant progress in the election.

The news for the smaller parties appeared to be bleak. The regional list results were not expected to be announced until later this morning but the early indications were that all the smaller parties were being squeezed by the battle between the main parties.

Check the state of the parties