Our next planned Yes Dunbar events are as follows. Whilst our events are planned with Yes Dunbar members in mind, we are pleased to welcome other “Yes” supporters, and those who are simply interested in finding out more about the case for an independent Scotland. We also hold some events with a cultural or social emphasis, rather than political. (For reports and photos of past events see the News page.)
HOLYROOD ELECTION THURSDAY 7 MAY 2026
Yes Dunbar has issued the following voting suggestions to members. Yes Dunbar is a non-party organisation campaigning for an independent Scotland. We do not support particular parties. For Holyrood election on 7 May, we encourage everyone to support the pro-independence parties in their campaigns and to use your vote in a way that will maximise the number of independence-supporting MSPs elected: see below for some key advice.
All Yes Dunbar members live in the Dunbar and East Linton ward which is now part of the Scottish Parliament constituency East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs for election of a constituency MSP. This is one of nine constituencies that make up the Edinburgh and Lothians East Region for election of regional MSPs.
Remember you have two separate votes – two ballot papers – on each ballot paper just place an X to mark your choice.
Based on evidence from a wide range of opinion polls and independent web-sites, Yes Dunbar’s advice is as follows (see below for reasons):
- On the lilac-coloured constituency ballot paper we recommend voting for Scottish National Party (SNP)
- On the peach-coloured regional ballot paper we recommend voting for the Scottish Green Party
The SNP candidate for the constituency is Paul McLennan who spoke to a Yes Dunbar meeting in February. He is the only pro-independence candidate on the constituency ballot with any realistic chance of being elected. If he is elected, it will give us a clear pro-independence MSP for this constituency. On the regional ballot, each party puts forward a list of candidates: the lead candidate for this region for the Scottish Greens is Lorna Slater who spoke to a Yes Dunbar meeting in March: she (and all the Scottish Green candidates) are also firmly in favour of independence.
However, take care on the regional peach ballot paper – it is a huge piece of paper giving you a choice of 22 parties and independent candidates! Some of the parties have very similar names – in particular that are several parties other than the SNP and Scottish Greens with the words “independent” and/or “green” in their names. The Scottish Green Party is just over half way down the paper under “S” for “Scottish”.
How the votes are counted:
- The constituency ballot is just a first-past-the post election between the six candidates standing.
- The regional ballot is counted by the ‘D’Hondt method’ which seeks to achieve an allocation of seats in each region proportional to the votes for each party – but the calculation includes the constituency seats in the region. So a party that does well in the constituencies – as expected for the SNP – is very unlikely to gain any extra seats at regional level compared to parties that do not win constituency seats. So voting SNP on the regional ballot won’t help the SNP: it will just help other parties who don’t get seats at constituency level, and in this region the strongest party in that position is expected to be Reform! This is an example of how the calculation may go in this region, drawing on the voting projections in the FindOutNow MRP poll at the end of March:
- The predicted result for constituency seats in this region is: 7 SNP, 1 Labour, 1 LibDem
- So votes are regional level will initially be weighted as follows:
- A regional vote for any of the parties that do not get constituency seats counts for a full vote: so each vote for Scottish Greens, Conservatives, Reform or minority parties is worth a full vote
- A regional vote for the Labour or LibDems who got 1 seat is worth half of a full vote
- But a regional vote for the SNP who got 7 seats at constituency level is worth only 1/8th of a full vote! In other words, the SNP would need 8 times more than votes for the Scottish Greens (or Conservatives or Reform) to get the first regional seat.
- There are seven regional MSPs to be elected in the region, so the regional vote continues for seven rounds. At each round, the votes for each party are divided by 1 plus the number of seats allocated so far. So, even if the SNP do not do as well as expected and only get (say) 5 constituency seats in this region, and even if we get to a round where the Scottish Greens have already picked up 2 seats (at constituency or region) the next round will be counted with SNP votes worth 1/6th of a vote and Scottish Green votes worth 1/3 of a vote. So votes for the Scottish Greens on the regional ballot will almost certainly be worth more than SNP votes at every round.
Voting practicalities:
If you will be voting in person on 7 May, plan your day so you have a definite time when you will get to the polling station!
If you have a postal vote, it should now have arrived – send it off right away! Take care to follow the instructions regarding entering your date of birth and signature on the envelope, and remember to enclose your completed ballot papers for both the constituency and the region.
If you now find you cannot vote in person you can apply for someone else to vote for you as a proxy – see https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/voting-and-elections/ways-vote/apply-vote-proxy (and be sure to select the Scotland page). The normal deadline is 28 April and you will need to but in emergency you could apply right up to 5pm on polling day.
Notes: (a) The calculation above is only an example: but the principle always applies that votes on the regional list are worth much less for a party that does well in the constituencies of the region. (b) This advice to vote for the SNP on the constituency vote and for the Scottish Green Party on the regional vote is specific to voters in the East Lothian Coast and Lammermuirs constituency which includes Dunbar and East Linton. Different recommendations would apply elsewhere (especially for those in the Scottish Borders). (c) Yes Dunbar is a non-party campaigner. The voting suggestions above are simply recommendations to maximise the number of pro-independence MSPs.
For more information see the News page for details of our Yes Dunbar series of speaker meetings with candidates standing locally in the election for the new Scottish Parliament on 7 May 2026 (the last of these was on 30 March). These meetings are now complete and in the weeks leading up to the election we would encourage members to work directly with the pro-independence parties standing for election.
The Yes Dunbar Committee will be meeting very shortly after the election to plan activities from summer/autumn 2026. If you are not yet signed up with Yes Dunbar please go to the Join page to register as a member or supporter to receive details of future events.