THE Scottish Parliament elections were held yesterday with the Clackmannanshire and Dunblane constituency ballot papers counted at Alloa Town Hall overnight.

It was a long night for all involved with the regional list results for Clacks announced around 4.30am. Altogether 29,859 votes were cast, a turnout of 59 per cent, compared to 27,416 in the 2011 elections, when the turnout was 52.8 per cent.

The SNP's Keith Brown was re-elected as MSP with 14,147 votes (47.37 per cent). Compared to five years ago, Mr Brown has gained an additional 894 votes, but in 2011 he had 48.3 per cent of the ballot papers.

Like in many parts of the country, Scottish Labour has not done as well as they would have hoped. In Clacks, candidate Craig Miller received 7426 votes (24.87 per cent), compared to Dr Richard Simpson's 9644 (35.2 per cent) in 2011.

The Scottish Conservatives have shown remarkable improvement compared to the last election and nearly doubled their final tally in the constituency. Candidate, and Perth and Kinross councillor, Alexander Stewart was voted for by 6915 electors (23.16 per cent), whereas, in comparison, Callum Campbell only received 3501 votes (12.8 per cent) in 2011.

The Liberal Democrats remain the smallest party with regards to the constituency race. This year, Dr Christopher McKinlay received 1258 votes (4.21 per cent), while five years ago Tim Brett had 1018 (3.7 per cent) to his name.

Finally, a small fraction of ballots - totalling 113 - were said to be spoiled and were rejected.

In terms of the Mid Scotland and Fife region, there were four Conservative MSPs elected including Murdo Fraser, Liz Smith, Dean Lockhart and Alexander Stewart.

Alex Rowley and Claire Baker from Scottish Labour were also elected, as was the Scottish Greens' Mark Ruskell.