In pictures: our photographers at the count
Updated: May 11, 2021, 10:34 am
Sign up for our daily newsletter featuring the top stories from The Press and Journal.
Thank you for signing up to The Press and Journal newsletter.
Something went wrong - please try again later. Sign Up
DCT Media photographers were deployed to election counts across Scotland at the weekend to capture the unique circumstances in which the constituencies were contested.
Covid restrictions meant there were no massive crowds at counting halls this year, or excessive scenes of celebration, and for our photographers the precautions also meant they had to keep their distance while documenting the process.
Why the Aberdeen count summed up a very strange Scottish Parliament election
Daily Record Live Politics Editor Peter Davidson looks back at an unusual two-day election count in Aberdeen.
18:08, 9 MAY 2021
The video will auto-play soon8Cancel
Play now
Join thousands of others and get the latest Scottish politics news sent straight to your inbox.Invalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Subscribe
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Your information will be used in accordance with ourPrivacy Notice.
Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice
It was one of the strangest election campaigns in living memory and the count wasn t any different.
ALEX Salmond has conceded that Alba will not win any seats in Holyrood as some of the regional votes were revealed. The National spoke to the former First Minister outside the P&J arena in Aberdeen, just after the regional results for Donside were released, but as more results were revealed Salmond became more realistic. The Alba Party won 743 votes (2.07%) for the regional list in Donside. Later in the evening the Banffshire and Buchan regional results were announced – with Alba gathering 1135 votes (3.43%). In Aberdeen Central, Alba only won 597 votes. It came as the SNP swept up on the constituency list, winning Aberdeen Donside and Banffshire and Buchan Coast.
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.