Scottish Green Party to announce new co-leaders

The Scottish Greens will elect two co-leaders

The Scottish Green Party will announce the winners of its leadership election on Friday.

The party will elect two co-leaders from four nominees; Dominic Ashmole, Ross Greer, Gillian Mackay and Lorna Slater.

The party said no candidates were running as a slate, so any combination of two out of the four could be elected. Typically, a male and female co-convener is elected.

The results will be announced at 10:00 during an event at the Scottish Poetry Library.

Three of the four nominations are currently sitting MSPs.

Slater has been co-leader along with Harvie since 2019 and is a Lothian regional MSP.

Greer represents West Scotland while Mackay represents Central Scotland.

Ashmole most recently stood for the Scottish Greens in the 2024 General Election in the Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale seat which was retained by Conservative David Mundell.

Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater have been co-leaders of the Scottish Greens since 2019

The ballot for party members opened on 13 August and closed last Friday.

One of the two current co-leaders, Patrick Harvie, announced earlier this year that he was stepping down from the role.

Harvie has been at the helm of the party for 17 years, making him Holyrood's longest serving party chief.

He will still seek to be re-elected as an MSP at next year's Holyrood election.

Harvie and Slater got the party into government in 2021 after signing the Bute House Agreement with the SNP.

Both co-leaders were given ministerial roles as a result, making them the UK's first Green ministers.

The power-sharing agreement fell apart in April 2024 after the parties disagreed on a number of policies.

The leadership election comes amid reports of a "civil war" within the party and controversy regarding regional list placings for MSP's ahead of the election.

It's been a turbulent parliamentary term for the Scottish Greens, from going into government with the SNP under Nicola Sturgeon to being kicked out again by Humza Yousaf.

The party helped bring down the first minister, before doing a budget deal with his successor John Swinney.

There has been some spirited debate within the Greens about the right way to go forward into next year's Holyrood election - even extending to talk of a challenge to Patrick Harvie's place at the top of the Glasgow regional list.

Should they see themselves as a potential party of government, willing to compromise to deliver their policy priorities?

Or should they hold firm to their radical principles, more at home protesting outside the corridors of power than cutting deals in the back rooms?

The result of this contest is unlikely to drag the party in a completely different direction, given that three of the candidates are sitting MSPs who played key roles in the pact with the SNP.

But it will still be instructive to see whether Lorna Slater can hold on to her post, or if the youthful combo of Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay can triumph with what has been talked about as almost a joint ticket.

Whoever wins will not have long to settle in before they need to hit the campaign trail for the far more significant election next May.