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Scottish ruling party to win 58 pct support in 2016 parliamentary election: survey

Xinhua, November 13, 2015 Adjust font size:

The ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) is expected to win 58 percent support in next year's Scottish parliament Holyrood elections, survey results showed on Thursday.

Of the 1,034 Scottish adults over the age of 16 questioned, 58 percent of those who expressed a preference said they intended to vote for SNP in the constituency section of the May 2016 elections, an increase of two percentage points on the previous month, the online Scotsman newspaper reported, quoting the the TNS survey results.

Scottish Labour gained three points to stand at 24 percent, with the Scottsih Conservatives on 12 percent (unchanged) and the Scottish Liberal Democrats on 4 percent (minus two percentage points), showed the results.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish First Minister and the SNP leader, emerged as the favourite party leader, with 44 percent saying they like her, while 25 percent dislike her, according to the survey.

The Scottish parliament election is scheduled for May 5, 2016 to elect 129 members. In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP won 69 seats, the most the party has ever held at a Holyrood election.

The SNP garnered a historic landslide of 56 seats out of 59 seats for Scotland in the British General election in May, a sharp increase from only six seats at Westminster British parliament in the 2010 general election.

The SNP-led pro-independence Yes campaign gained 45 percent support in the Scottish Independence referendum held on Sept. 18, 2014, against the No campaign's 55 percent in the historic poll with a turnout of 85 percent and more than 3.6 million people across Scotland casting their votes. Endit