At stake in this election:

• 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament (Pàrlamaid na h-Alba)

Description of government structure:

• Chief of State: Queen ELIZABETH II
• Head of Government: First Minister Jack McCONNELL
• Assembly: Scotland (part of the United Kingdom) has a unicameral Scottish Parliament (Pàrlamaid na h-Alba) with 129 seats.

Description of electoral system:

• The Queen is the hereditary head of state.
• The First Minister is appointed by the monarch.
• In the Scottish Parliament (Pàrlamaid na h-Alba), 73 members are elected by plurality vote in single-member constituencies to serve 4-year terms and 56 members are elected through a closed-list proportional representation system to serve 4-year terms.***

*** Seats in the proportional tier are allocated using the d'Hondt method.

Main parties in the electoral race:

• Party: Scottish Labour Party
  • Leader: Jack MCCONNELL
  • Seats won in this election: 50
  • Seats won in last election: 35
• Party: Scottish National Party (SNP)
  • Leader: John SWINNEY
  • Seats won in this election: 27
  • Seats won in last election: 35
• Party: Scottish Conservative and Unionists
  • Leader: David MCLETHCIE
  • Seats won in this election: 18
  • Seats won in last election: 18
• Party: Scottish Liberal Democrats
  • Leader: Jim WALLACE
  • Seats won in this election: 17
  • Seats won in last election: 7
• Party: Scottish Greens (GREEN)
  • Leader: Robin HARPER
  • Seats won in this election: 7
  • Seats won in last election: 1
• Party: Scottish Socialist Party
  • Leader: Tommy SHERIDAN
  • Seats won in this election: 6
  • Seats won in last election: 1
• Party: Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 1
  • Seats won in last election: N/A
• Party: Other Parties
  • Leader: N/A
  • Seats won in this election: 3
  • Seats won in last election: N/A

Last Parliamentary election:

• Parliamentary elections were last held in Scotland on May 6, 1999.

Population and number of registered voters:

• Population: 5,100,000 (July 2001 approx.)
• Registered Voters: 3,877,603 ( 2003 )