Deputy Presiding Officer - Liveblog

Four MSPs are in for the posts: Trish Godman is up for re-election; Alasdair Morgan (as tipped last week) is in there; as are Margaret Smith and Jamie Stone. This is the first time that two candidates from the same Party have gone head-to-head. In 1999, the SNP's George Reid and Labour's Patricia Ferguson beat the Tories' John Young. In 2001, Conservative Murray Tosh beat Labour's Cathy Peattie, while in 2003, Murray Tosh won re-election and Trish Godman was elected, the pair of them defeating Robin Harper of the Greens.

The results from the first round of voting for the First DPO are as follows:

Alasdair Morgan 55
Trish Godman 47
Margaret Smith 12
Jamie Stone 8

So Jamie Stone is eliminated until the election for the Second DPO. [15.05.07 - Turns out there were four spoiled ballot papers: some Members had decided to vote for more than one candidate, have they learned nothing?]

UPDATE: Margaret Smith has now been eliminated. I would give you the numbers but the webcast decided to break down at the key moment. [15.05.07: A check of the Official Report puts the vote at Morgan 61, Godman 49, Smith 16]

UPDATE II: Alasdair Morgan has been elected First DPO, by 77 votes to 49 for Godman. Smith and Stone re-join Godman on the ballot paper for Second DPO.

UPDATE III: Trish Godman has been re-elected with 69 votes - a majority - to Margaret Smith's 48 and Jamie Stone's eight. I wonder who Jamie Stone's seven friends are?