NOT being allowed on the count floor for the first time during an election was a strange experience, but nothing compared to the long walk from the media balcony to the declaration room.

In normal times all candidates would take to the stage and have to face an audience while the results were read out, but this time the candidates were told beforehand, and only the winner came into the declaration room to give a speech.

But at the P&J Arena in Aberdeen we had to make our way from the balcony above the count floor (one guard referred to them as the “cheap seats”), down three sets of stairs, across the hall through a locked door, up another few sets of stairs and into a long and winding corridor where we passed the event campus kitchens, and finally into the declaration room.

It’s all part of the Covid-19 restrictions in place, but it didn’t fully take away from all of the excitement of the day.

At points you could see candidates gathered in a corner of the hall, being told the provisional results, you could hear clapping, but the distance made it near impossible to tell who was doing it, or who for. It was an overall strange experience to be so far away from the action.

I ran into Alex Salmond accidentally while out for some fresh air (after all of those treacherous stairs), completely by chance as he was being interviewed by another reporter. I hung around and managed to get a few quotes from him before he was accosted by a security guard who wanted a picture.

He was reserved, after all, only the first set of regional results had been declared, there’s still quite a while to go yet. He seemed confident that whatever the result, Alba would live on and work towards pushing for independence.

From speaking to those who are allowed access on the floor, it’s still pretty up in the air, and it was slow going as the volunteers continued to shuffle through the ballots past dinner time.

Guy Ingerson, the candidate for the Greens in Aberdeen Central, also felt the peril of the labyrinth-like halls trying to find me in the media room – and even picked up a police escort along the way. I can only blame myself for nipping off to enjoy the free coffee (you don’t get that at Glasgow counts), but what he had to say was interesting – a major win for them on the North East regional list would be to overtake the LibDems.

He said the party was feeling “quietly confident” that it would make gains this election

Although Ingerson is standing in a constituency, in Aberdeen all eyes are on the regional vote as the SNP are expected to sweep up in the constituency. With a majority up in the air, rumours of an SNP-Green coalition have been doing the rounds, but as Ingerson pointed out – Green party members would have to vote on it before it could go ahead, which could potentially throw a spanner in the works.

On a personal note, I can’t help but wish there had been a shop open in the arena, as I ran out of food pretty early on. As it became clear we weren’t getting a 6pm declaration for Aberdeen Central and Aberdeenshire East, the free coffee was a welcome perk.