Scotland's political parties are awaiting the results of elections to the European Parliament. | UKIP is on course to win its first seat in Scotland in the 2014 European election, which has seen the SNP win the most votes. |
Voting took place on Thursday but results will not be announced until after polls close in other European Union member states at 22:00 BST. | Scotland's party of power is expected to win two of the six MEP seats, with two for Labour and one for the Conservatives. |
There are six MEP seats in Scotland up for grabs, out of 73 across the UK. | The full Scottish result will be known at noon on Monday, as the Western Isles does not count votes on a Sunday. |
The last European election, in 2009, saw the SNP win the largest share of the vote in Scotland for the first time, beating Labour into second place. | Scottish voter turnout in the election was 33.5%. |
However, the full Scottish result will not be known until noon on Monday, as the Western Isles declines to count its votes on a Sunday. | A win for UKIP would mean Liberal Democrats losing the one Scottish MEP seat the party previously had. |
The last Euro election, which came after the SNP's 2007 Scottish Parliament election win, saw the party take 29.1% of the vote - a 10 point increase from the 2004 election - ahead of Labour's 20.8%. The Tories took 16.8% and the Lib Dems, 11.5%. | David Coburn, UKIP's lead candidate in Scotland, said the result showed his party had appeal beyond England. |
The result saw the SNP and Labour return two MEPs each, with one each for the Tories and Liberal Democrats. | He claimed, ahead of the 18 September Scottish independence referendum, the SNP had peaked and were now on the slide. |
In the 2014 election, where Scottish voter turnout was 34%, the Scottish Greens are hoping to capitalise on what they predicted would be a falling Liberal Democrat vote north of the border, to win their first MEP seat. | Earlier, Scottish First Minister and SNP leader Alex Salmond said a UKIP win in Scotland, in fourth place, would still be a "world of difference" when compared to the party's performance in other parts of the UK. |
UKIP has also been campaigning in Scotland. | The SNP came first on the night, with 386,193 votes, with Labour coming second, on 346,377 votes. |
Ahead of the independence referendum, on 18 September, the SNP said a vote for the party was "a vote for Scotland", while Labour said it was the party of influence in Brussels. | In third place was the Conservatives, with 230,569 votes, followed by UKIP on 139,687. |
The Conservatives have backed EU reform, while the Liberal Democrats said they were making a positive case for Britain in the EU. | The Scottish Greens hailed their "best ever result", after winning 107,805 votes, while the Liberal Democrats got a total of 95,076 votes. |
The European Parliament's powers have expanded since the last election, and the 751 MEPs now negotiate legislation with national government ministers, before parliament votes on the laws. | |
They also have a say on budget areas, including agriculture and regional aid. | |
European Parliament seats are allocated in proportion to each country's population. | |
Britain is one of eight countries to use a "closed list" system where people vote for a party, rather than an individual, with seats allocated within each European constituency using the D'hondt system, a form of proportional representation. | |
The new intake of MEPs will be representing 500 million citizens in 28 states. | |
