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With your:

• constituency vote – you’re choosing an individual candidate to represent you
• regional vote – you’re choosing a party or independent candidate to represent you

Constituency votes are counted first. The candidate with the most votes in each constituency wins.

Regional votes are counted next, and regional ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ are elected using a formula. This means that the number of seats a party gets in total across a region is about the same as the percentage of votes it receives.

This way of electing ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is called the additional member system (AMS).

How Scotland gets divided up for elections

Scotland is divided into 73 constituencies, each one represented by 1 MSP. Scotland is also divided into 8 regions (larger areas covering several constituencies). Each region is represented by 7 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.

This results in 129 ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ in total: 73 constituency ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ and 56 regional ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ.