BBC Radio Scotland

Dennis Canavan, former Labour MP for Falkirk, told BBC Radio Scotland that he's been involved in more political campaigns than he's had hot dinners and that this one has been one of the most predictable and as a result "one of the most boring". 

Mr Canavan says he was almost grateful for Gary Tank Commander interviewing the party leaders to liven things up a bit.

Former first minister Henry McLeish, of Scottish Labour, says he thinks his party will retain second place and it would be a "spectacular result" for the conservatives to get second place.

He says he agrees it has been "lackluster" campaign and nothing has moved in the last year. 

This is the fifth election since the Scottish Parliament was established in 1999.  

The turnout at the last election in 2011 was 50.4% - but is widely expected to be higher this time.

The election uses the Additional Member System, which means people were given two votes to select:

• A constituency MSP elected through first past the post in each of the 73 constituencies
• 56 regional MSPs, seven for each of the eight electoral regions in Scotland, which are allocated to parties through a form of proportional representation

Jane Lewis
BBC Scotland

The postal votes have already been verified here at the waterfront leisure centre in Greenock. There are 8,700 of them from 11,200 issued.

Those on the counting floor are poised for action as they await the first ballot boxes. The counting floor is actually an ice rink - thankfully it's been covered up.

No puns on politicians being on thin ice!!!

Morag Kinniburgh
BBC Scotland

Here's the view from our reporter Morag Kinniburgh who is a the count in Ingilston in Edinburgh.

Morag told Radio Scotland that there are 1,068 fingerettes for the count!

Fingerettes are those rubber tips bank tellers use!

Reevel Alderson
BBC Scotland Home Affairs correspondent

Last time round, in 2011, it was Rutherglen at 00:54, but will it win again? 

Officials at the counting centre in East Kilbride say they expect it will be in the top five as two full teams will count the Rutherglen boxes.

The first, the designated counters for the constituency; the second, counters for the Clydesdale constituency which is also being tallied here. 

Its boxes will not arrive until later as they have further to travel. 

Rutherglen is currently held by Labour's James Kelly, but the SNP require only a swing of 3.28% to wrest it from him.

Polls have closed in the Scottish Parliament 2016 election and the long business of counting the votes is about to begin around the country.

Based on the 2011 Holyrood election results, we have estimated the declaration times of Scotland's 73 constituency seats and eight regional lists.  

You can find it here.

BBC Scotland will be delivering comprehensive election results coverage across online, TV and radio.

• The BBC's news website will be the one-stop place to go. You will be able to keep in touch with the Scotland-wide picture on your phone, tablet, laptop, internet-enabled television and computer
• An overnight television programme, starting at 22:30 on BBC One Scotland, will be presented by Glenn Campbell, Brian Taylor and Jackie Bird. It will run until 09:15 on Friday.
• On BBC Radio Scotland, live coverage of the results will start at 22:00 and be brought to you by presenters Bill Whiteford and Gillian Marles
• Reaction to the overnight results will be reported on Good Morning Scotlandfrom 06:00 by Gary Robertson and Hayley Millar

Full details of the BBC's coverage can be found here.

That's it, the polling stations are closed and all that remains now is the process of finding out who has won the Holyrood Election 2016.

And that's what we're here for, throughout the night and all tomorrow.