SNP Leadership Contests: Here's how the SNP have selected their past leaders - from Alex Salmond and John Swinney to Nicola Sturgeon

As the SNP prepare to elect a new leader – and Scottish First Minister – we take a look at how the process has worked in the past.
The SNP have had three Holyrood leaders since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.The SNP have had three Holyrood leaders since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.
The SNP have had three Holyrood leaders since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament.

After the shock announcement that Nicola Sturgeon will step down from being Scotland’s First Minister, thoughts are turning to who will succeed her to become only the sixth to hold the position since the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

The person who will follow in the footsteps of Donald Dewar, Henry McLeish, Jack McConnell, Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon will be decided by an SNP leadership contest, the rules and timings of which will be announced in due course by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).

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Here’s how the process has worked in the past to elect the SNP’s party leader.

1990: Alex Salmond v Margaret Ewing

Alex Salmond was the SNP’s first leader at Holyrood when the Scottish Parliament opened in 1999 – and had been elected the SNP’s leader nine years before.

The leadership contest was triggered in 1990 after the previous leader, Gordon Wilson, stood down.

In a bruising contest Salmond had to defeat Margaret Ewing, who won the support of Salmond’s former staunch ally Jim Sillars.

Salmond went on to win easily, triumphing by 486 votes to 146.

2000: Swinney v Neil

Alex Salmond triggered a leadership contest just a year after becoming Leader of the Opposition in the newly-established Scottish Parliament.

He stood down after losing the support of large parts of the SNP following a series of high-profile fall-outs with party members.

Two candidates put themselves for the leadership – Depute Leader and spokesman on enterprise and lifelong learning John Swinney and the SNP vice-convener for policy and social security spokesman Alex Neil.

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Each SNP branch named a number of delegates to vote on their behalf for a candidate, depending on the size of the branch, with over 700 delegates being given the right to vote.

The result of the election was announced at the SNP party conference on September 23, with John Swinney – who had won the backing of Alex Salmond – winning by 547 votes to 268.

2003 Swinney v Wilson

Doubts over John Swinney’s leadership led to a leadership challenge from party activist Bill Wilson in 2003.

The resulting election was held at the party's 69th annual conference and was the last to use the system of using branch delegates to vote for a leader.

Swinney enjoyed a massive victory over Wilson but his authority had been fatally damaged.

2004: Salmond v Russell v Cunningham

Following poor results for the SNP at the 2003 Scottish Parliament election and the 2004 European Parliament election, John Swinney resigned as party leader on June 18, 2004.

Rosanna Cunningham threw her hat in the ring for the leadership first, quickly followed by Nicola Sturgeon and Mike Russell. Fergus Ewing, Kenny MacAskill and Alex Neil all expressed interest but ultimately declined to stand.

Alex Salmond belatedly announced he would stand, with Nicola Sturgeon withdrawing to support him on a joint tickets running for Depute Leader instead.

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Salmond, Cunningham and Russell were announced as the three candidates on July 16, 2004, and for the first time were voted on by the entire SNP membership via a postal vote.

Salmond won by a landslide, collecting 4,952 votes (75.8 per cent), compared to Cunningham’s 953 and Russell’s 631.

Nicola Sturgeon became Depute Leader with 3,521 votes (53.9 per cent).

2014: Sturgeon unopposed

On September 19, 2014, Alex Salmond announced that he would be standing down as First Minister in November after losing the referendum on Scottish independence.

Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was the only candidate to stand for the leadership, becoming party leader at the SNP’s conference in Perth on November 14.

She was then officially elected Scotland’s First Minister the next day, with Conservative leader Ruth Davidson also standing.

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