Here's a round-up of some of the early declarations and important developments

• The SNP have gained two seats, taking East Lothian from Labour with a majority 1,179 and Ayr from the Conservatives with a majority of 170 - the closest result so far.
• The Ayr win could be crucial for SNP ambitions for an overall majority, according to Prof Sir John Curtice. He says there are clear signs of tactical voting by unionist voters.
• With 33 seats declared, the SNP have 29, the Lib Dems have three and the Conservatives have one
• Nicola Sturgeon held her Glasgow Southside seat with a very slightly reduced majority. Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar came second, increasing his party's share of the vote by 8.5%
• A disappointing result for Labour in Rutherglen, one of its target seats where there had been controversy over local MP Margaret Ferrier - but it was held comfortably by the SNP's Clare Haughey
• Scottish Lib Dem leader Willie Rennie was returned in North East Fife, substantially increasing his majority but his party failed to topple the SNP in Caithness, Sutherland and Ross and saw its majority in Shetland reduced to just 806 after a strong SNP challenge.
• The Scottish Conservatives came a close second in Banffshire and Buchan Coast, trailing the SNP by only 772 votes. They also increased their share in Aberdeen Donside.
• So far, the Conservatives have returned one MSP, Rachael Hamilton easily retaining Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire but with a decreased majority.
• Two members of the Liberal Party, a small party not linked to the Lib Dems, were ejected from the Glasgow count after accosting the SNP's Humza Yousaf, questioning him about the treatment of women in Pakistan. They were wearing yellow stars with "unvax" written on them.
• Scottish Labour candidate Pam Duncan-Glancy, who is a wheelchair user, said she was delayed entering the main Glasgow counting venue for 45 minutes because staff didn't believe she was a candidate
• A common theme is that turnout is high, with some constituencies seeing it up by 8% or more

Kate Forbes has won Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch for the SNP with a hugely increased majority of 15,861.

Ms Forbes polled 56.1% of the vote after a swing of 2.7% from the Conservatives to the SNP.

Her majority increased by nearly 7,000 votes.

There was a 68.4% turnout.

Full results here

Regional list 'snapshots' give flavour of Saturday's resultspublished at 18:00 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

18:00 BST 7 May 2021

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

Image source, EPA

The focus has understandably been chiefly on constituency contests so far, but we are also starting to see some figures for regional list rankings.

The full calculations for the regional lists will be done on Saturday, once all constituencies have counted, but some returning officers have been reading out both tallies for their local areas.

These are just little snapshots, scattered across several regions, but give a small flavour of how things may develop.

The Conservatives’ “peach vote” strategy may have paid off, with the party increasing its share in four out of the five declarations so far.

The Alba Party meanwhile has not managed to gather more than 2.2% of the list vote in any of the five, and are behind the Family Party in two of them. This does not bode well for Alex Salmond’s party.

The Greens meanwhile are in fourth place in all five which have declared so far, which will give them hope of staying in fourth place at Holyrood ahead of the Lib Dems.

The SNP's Jenni Minto has won Argyll and Bute with an increased majority of 8,963 over the Conservatives.

There was a swing of 0.3% from the SNP to the Tories.

The seat had previously been held by former Constitution Secretary Mike Russell. Ms Minto increased his majority by almost 3,000 votes.

Full results here

Rutherglen loss another Labour disappointmentpublished at 17:51 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

17:51 BST 7 May 2021

Andrew Kerr
Scottish political correspondent

There’s another disappointment for Scottish Labour this afternoon as they’ve failed to take a key target – Rutherglen.

The party’s candidate James Kelly looked pretty morose on stage as the SNP win was announced.

He’s probably now out of Holyrood as he’s too far down the list.

The party had hoped to capitalise here because of the Margaret Ferrier affair.

She’s the MP for Rutherglen and Hamilton West who was suspended from the SNP after travelling from London with a positive Covid result.

It was not to be though and the SNP’s Clare Haughey swept back in with a swing of 0.8% from Labour to the SNP.

The Labour leader Anas Sarwar has been praised in some quarters for a good campaign and the party has seen increases in some of its constituency votes.

But they have lost East Lothian – and they will be hoping to hold on to Dumbarton.

The Scottish first minister is "eager and ready to get back to work" after the initial results for the Scottish Parliament.

Tactical voting by unionist voterspublished at 17:46 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

17:46 BST 7 May 2021

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

There are clear signs of tactical voting by unionist voters in the Scottish results.

In seats where the Conservatives were second to the SNP their vote is up by three points, whereas it is down by two points in places where Labour was second to the SNP.

Conversely, the Labour vote is up by two points in seats where they are second to SNP, but down by two points in seats where the Conservatives are second to the SNP.

The scale of tactical voting by unionist voters clearly should not be exaggerated, but if it does occur in the crucial marginals the SNP are trying to win it could still be sufficient to make a difference.

Ayr win 'crucial' for potential SNP majoritypublished at 17:44 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

17:44 BST 7 May 2021

Professor Sir John Curtice
Polling expert

The SNP's narrow gain in the Ayr seat means that the party has secured its second gain among the nine opposition-held marginal seats, six of which the SNP need to get an overall majority.

So far it looks as though the SNP is achieving the small swing that it needs to pick up the crucial marginal seats.

Image source, bbc

The Scottish Conservatives' Rachael Hamilton has held Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire, with a slightly reduced majority of 6,863.

The SNP's Paul Wheelhouse was second.

It was a comfortable hold for the Conservatives, with a relatively small swing from the Tories to the SNP of 2.2%.

Full results here

How can a candidate lose the constituency vote but still get elected?published at 17:37 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

17:37 BST 7 May 2021

Question from Andrew

Philip Sim
BBC Scotland political correspondent

The Scottish Parliament’s electoral system includes two different ways of choosing MSPs, in a bid to create a more balanced result.

As well as a constituency MSP, elected first past the post, you are represented by seven more “regional list” MSPs.

The idea is that if a lot of people in a particular area back a party which fails to win any constituencies, they should still get to be represented by a member of that party.

Parties can choose who they put on their regional lists. For example, if the Greens think Patrick Harvie is their best bet to represent Glasgow, despite failing to topple the SNP in the Kelvin constituency, then they can put him top of the list.

List MSPs are equal to constituency ones in every way at Holyrood – and indeed every current party leader has been a list MSP at some point in their career.

The SNP's Annabelle Ewing has won Cowdenbeath with an increased majority of 6,013.

There was a swing from Labour to the SNP of 3.7%.

Ms Ewing's majority increased by nearly 3,000 votes.

Full results here

The SNP's Siobhian Brown has taken Ayr from the Scottish Conservatives with a majority of just 170.

There was a 1.2% swing from the Tories to the SNP.

Ms Brown won with a narrow majority of 0.4%.

Full results here

Image source, bbc

Pam Duncan-Glancy, Scottish Labour's candidate for Glasgow Kelvin and a wheelchair user, has said managers of the city's counting venue did not believe she was a candidate.

Ms Duncan-Glancy said she was then told she had entered the Emirates Arena via "the wrong door" and that it was a full 45 minutes before she was allowed to sit with the other candidates.

The Glasgow Kelvin seat is currently held by the SNP with a majority of more than 4,000. Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie, who finished second in 2016, is also a candidate in the constituency.

A Glasgow City Council spokeswoman said: “The Returning Officer has spoken with the candidate and apologised, with steps being taken to ensure that the problem is not repeated.”

The Battle of Glasgow Southsidepublished at 17:22 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

17:22 BST 7 May 2021

Andrew Kerr
Scottish political correspondent

It’s a Holyrood first – two big party leaders going head-to-head in the same constituency.

It’s been the Battle of Glasgow Southside and the political divide is stark – SNP v Labour.

The SNP’s Nicola Sturgeon has nurtured this part of Glasgow since 1999.

The party boss was first elected on the city’s list and then wrestled the constituency away from Labour’s Gordon Jackson in 2007.

Meanwhile, it’s family affair for the Sarwars. Mohammed Sarwar won the Westminster seat of Glasgow Govan in 1997.

For son Anas, it was unthinkable to stand anywhere else. He’s been lauded for running a decent campaign (yet they have lost East Lothian to the SNP).

He managed to double his vote here – but Ms Sturgeon won comfortably.

In her acceptance speech, she paid a warm tribute to her political rival – saying they were in the strange position of quite liking each other.

They may be divided by politics – but the two politicians are united against racism and fascism with the SNP leader saying the far-right was not welcome in Glasgow Southside after a couple of ugly incidents.

The SNP's Humza Yousaf has held the Glasgow Pollok seat with an increased majority of 7,105 over Labour.

There was a swing of 1.1% from the SNP to Labour.

The Conservative share of the vote was down by 4%, while the Greens incfreased by 4.9%.

Full results here

Clare Haughey of the SNP has held the Rutherglen seat for the SNP.

Her majority over Labour's James Kelly increased to 5,166.

There was a small swing from Labour to the SNP of 0.8%.

Like everywhere else, turnout was up.

Full results here

In for the long haulpublished at 17:14 British Summer Time 7 May 2021

17:14 BST 7 May 2021

Nick Eardley
Political correspondent

Image source, Getty Images

Can the SNP win a majority? That question won’t be answered until tomorrow. Constituency results have an impact on the regional list. We’re in this for the long haul.

But one of the first questions we were asking is “can the SNP win constituency seats they didn’t last time?”

The answer is yes. The East Lothian result is really important – Labour had held it since 1999. The party was confident tactical voting would help them get over the line. It didn’t.

There could be more seats like this. The SNP are confident in Edinburgh Central, where Angus Robertson is standing. Ayr is on a knife-edge. Dumbarton is the most marginal seat in Scotland and the SNP’s top target.

We said this morning that the battle of the constituencies could be SNP turnout versus tactical voting. As things stand, in the key seats, the SNP will be encouraged.

But just remember the regional list knock-on. We can’t say anything for sure yet.

Will my result be Friday or Saturday?

The SNP's Evelyn Tweed has won the Stirling seat with a slightly increased majority of 6,895.

The Conservatives were second after a swing of 1.4% from the SNP.

Turnout increased to 69%.

Full results here

Our reporter in Ayr, David McDaid says things are looking close.

He says: "Candidates in Ayr were summoned by the returning officer and everyone gathered in anticipation of a declaration. But after some time the candidates and their agents re-emerged from backstage to enter the count floor for the first time today.

"The Conservative candidate John Scott is looking through some ballot papers, while the SNP’s Siobhian Brown stands by.

"I’m told by one Tory insider that it’s tight."

Image source, Reuters

Anas Sarwar responds to the ugly scenes of fascism he faced at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow earlier, and Nicola Sturgeon's clash with far-right candidates in Glasgow on Thursday.

He says: "Every single time the far-right hate has tried to come to the southside, we as a community have united against them and rejected them.

"Myself and Nicola Sturgeon might have many differences of opinion politically but when it comes to fighting bigotry and hatred and intolerance we, and large parts of Scotland, are united against the fascists."

He said he was pleased with what he had achieved in Glasgow, saying Labour was "back on the pitch", increasing vote share by about 9%.

"I'm not pretending this journey is complete," he said. "I am not interested in building the opposition, I want to build the alternative."