The Scottish Greens were celebrating a historic win in the Scottish Parliament Election 2026 with their first ever constituency win.
Lorna Slater was previously elected in 2021 on the party list for the Lothian region, but last night won the constituency seat of Edinburgh Central with a 4,582 majority.
The Election was the first held under the new electoral boundaries set by the Second Periodic Review, with boundary changes across Edinburgh's constituencies.
Slater defeated incumbent, SNP cabinet minister Angus Robertson, who was relegated to third place behind Labour’s James Dalgleish.
Edinburgh Central, which encompasses Edinburgh Castle, Old Town, New Town, Calton Hill, and the Scottish Parliament itself, had the longest constituency ballot paper in Scotland’s 73 constituencies with 11 candidates.
Slater, who was born and educated in Western Canada, served as Minister for Green Skills, Circular Economy and Biodiversity in the Scottish government from 2021 to 2024.
Robertson blamed a green "wave" across Scotland, pointing to Holly Bruce winning a second constituency seat for the Scottish Greens, from SNP cabinet minister Kaukab Stewart, in Glasgow Southside. The seat was formerly held by SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon.
SNP win 5th consecutive election
With 58 seats nationally, the SNP will still return to Holyrood as the party with the most seats, although it will be short of a majority.
Scottish Labour and Reform each won 17 seats, the Greens won 15, the Conservatives won 12 and the Lib Dems now have 10.
SNP Leader John Swinney said he will begin talks with other parties to govern, but ruled out working with Reform.
Edinburgh City seats
In Edinburgh, the new political climate meant a win for Ben Macpherson of the Scottish National Party in Edinburgh North Eastern and Leith with a 3,071 majority.
Simita Kumar, also for the Scottish National Party, won Edinburgh South Western with a 3,289 majority.
But the SNP’s Euan Hyslop was unable to secure the new Edinburgh Northern constituency. The seat was won by Scottish Liberal Democrats’ Sanne Dijkstra-Downie with a 2,493 majority.
Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton comfortably won the Edinburgh North Western constituency with a 13,016 majority.
Meanwhile, Daniel Johnson won one of Edinburgh’s six constituency seats for Scottish Labour by taking Edinburgh Southern with a 4,963 majority.
The total electorate for the city constituencies was 387,355, with total votes cast 223,815.
Voter turnout was 57.8%, down from 64.2% at the 2021 Scottish Parliament Election.
Regional list MSPs
As well as six constituency seats in the Edinburgh and Lothians East electoral region the additional-member electoral system elects seven additional MSPs.
The Edinburgh and Lothians East (Region) elected three greens, two Labour, one Conservative, and one Reform.
Scottish Green Party
Scottish Labour Party
Reform UK
Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party
For the region, the electorate was 564,571, total votes cast was 320,286 and voter turnout was 56.7%.