AT election counts, the result is typically known long before the official announcement.
At the Highland Hall in Ingliston on Friday – the site of the Edinburgh count for the Holyrood election – the first result became apparent around noon.
I could see beaming faces from the corner where Scottish Greens election agents, officials and politicians chose to congregate. Two staffers couldn’t hide their joy not long after, walking past me with wide grins as one asked: “Where is Angus?”
The SNP heavyweight Angus Robertson did indeed turn up in time for the official declaration later in the day to announce the inevitable: that he had been ousted in Edinburgh Central – coming in third behind Labour – by the Scottish Greens and their candidate Lorna Slater.
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He denied it had anything to do with his much-criticised 2024 meeting with the Israeli deputy ambassador to journalists afterwards.
And in a speech after the fact, paid tribute to what is a historic win for the Scottish Greens – their first ever Holyrood constituency victory (they later won another in Glasgow) rather than a regional list seat. Speaking to journalists after the result in Edinburgh, Slater said it was a “big step” for the Scottish Greens and paid credit to the party’s activists – who were quite literally jumping with joy.
She added: “Today is a fantastic day.”
Another result that became apparent quite quickly – the Lib Dems and their councillor and candidate Sanne Dijkstra-Downie winning the Edinburgh Northern seat, which was thought to be a tight race with the SNP but ended up fairly comfortable.
Again, smiling faces from activists and staff betrayed the result. They soon went outside the venue, where sunshine greeted their arriving leader Alex Cole-Hamilton. He, too, won his Edinburgh North Western seat – a comfortable hold with 22959 votes to the SNP candidate Lyn Jardine’s 9943.
With some other modest gains across Scotland – a lone shock loss in Shetland aside – Cole-Hamilton will be a more influential presence in Holyrood than before.
While he ruled out any coalition deal with the SNP, he did tell me his party would “work constructively on the issues that matter to us”.
When pressed on what issues that might be, he remained vague.
For Scottish Labour in Edinburgh, it wasn’t a total disaster. In fact, their candidate in Edinburgh Southern Daniel Johnson increased his majority for a comfortable win over the SNP’s Deidre Brock.
Joy for him but concern for his party. His leader Anas Sarwar – who Johnson described as a “friend” – is facing calls to resign after what looks to be a very poor result for Scottish Labour Scotland-wide.
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The National also asked Johnson about whether this should happen. "That's still a hypothetical question, you know. I think I'd much rather respond to that once we actually know the results but we will need to deal with the political reality,” he told me.
Whilst there were a couple of seats lost, it wasn’t a disaster for the SNP.
Simita Kumar, the SNP’s candidate who already leads the party’s group on Edinburgh Council, won the Edinburgh South Western seat with 11,727 votes.
“I’m so proud,” one of her sisters told me as journalists waited their turn to interview the now MSP. Asked what she will bring to Holyrood, Kumar told me: “One of the things I'm very keen for is that we have more women representatives in the parliament, that we have people from all different backgrounds.
“I come from a very working class background and in terms of bringing that experience to the fore, it's really important for me. But as an immigrant, as well, to have all of these experiences behind me, combined with my professional experience, I hope to do what's right for the Edinburgh South Western constituency and do my best to serve them.”
It was a win too for the SNP in Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith in spite of a charge from the Scottish Greens.
The party’s candidate and education minister Ben MacPherson will remain in post.
But the losses here in Edinburgh no doubt contributed strongly to the SNP not securing a majority.
That being said, we are looking at a big stonking pro-independence majority with what looks to be a hugely strong performance from the Scottish Greens. In Edinburgh particularly, with the party winning a further 3 MSPs on the list – Kate Nevens, Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill and Q Manivannan – who will be one of the two first transgender MSPs.
"I am a transgender Tamil immigrant. My pronouns are they/them. To some in this country, I am everything that the hateful despise and I'm standing here as your MSP with care,” they said to huge cheers from party activists in the evening, after a long day.
The rest of the spoils went to Reform UK, the Scottish Tories and Scottish Labour (2 MSPs).
The full implications of this result in Edinburgh – and, indeed, Scotland-wide – remains to be seen. But Holyrood will certainly have more progressive voices.
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