Lib Dems hold on to Shetland with mammoth victory

The first boxes of postal votes for today’s Scottish Parliamentary Centre arrived at a somewhat muted Clickimin Bowls Hall counting centre at around 10.20pm.

the scuttlebut about today’s turnout was that there was perhaps a lower turnout than at other recent elections – perhaps indicating a certain public burnout with the political process.

However the candidates remained upbeat about their experience on the road to election.

Labour candidate Robina Barton said she had been very happy with the campaign enjoying support from the party locally asndf aslso nationally.

She said: “I have had good feedback from people. I have no idea how its going to go tonight. There seems to be so many different things in play but on the whole I think we have done well.”

Asked about the possibility of the Tories leapfrogging Labour nationally she said: “Scotland has always seen itself as a fairly left-wing country so if you start seeing people voting for the Conservative party after the terrible government we have had in Westminster I’d find that really surprising.”

The SNP’s Danus Skene, standing at his second parliamentary election within a year, and the frontrunner in the race to unseat the Lib Dem’s Tavish Scott, said prior to the count that signs were emerging that people had had enough of the Lib Dem’s dominance in Shetland politics, insisting there had been a “real step-change”.

Mr Skene said: “My point – and I made it in the hustings – was that the Lib Dems have lost their soul to a considerable extent.”

Conservative candidate Cameron Smith  gives his views on the campaign.

The North Isles boxes have just arrived at 11.50pm.

According to returning officer Jan Riise the count is on time for the election declaration to be made by 2.30am.

Robina Barton talks about her election campaign.

The official turnout figure for the election is a 64 per cent of the electorate. The total number of votes cast was 11,087.

Gulberwick had the highest turnout with a 75.4 per cent turnout, with other high turnouts from Uyeasound (71.9 per cent), Quarff (71.4 per cent) and Bressay (70.5 per cent).

Least engaged was Mossbank with 47.9 per cent.

Danus Skene has just shaken the hand of the recently arrived Tavish Scott: it appears the SNP have conceded victory to the sitting MSP.

The pile of ballot papers tells its own story.

Tavish looks pleased.

Danus less so.

The result is expected in 10 minutes.

Now it appears the result will be with us in five minutes……….or so.

It’s a landslide win for Tavish Scott:

The official figures are –

Tavish Scott, Scottish Liberal Democrats            7,440

Danus Skene, Scottish National Party                 2,545

Robina Barton, Scottish Labour Party                 651

Cameron Smith                                                         405

Returning officer Jan Riise reads out the results.

Tavish has won with 67.1 per cent of the vote cast in Shetland.

Tavish Scott makes his acceptance speech.

Danus Skene reflects on  the reasons for the SNP’s poor vote in Shetland at this parliamentary election.

Tavish Scott has a few words for his constituents.