SCOTLAND’S newest political party will announce its first candidates this week, with one former and one serving MSP expected to be among the frontrunners.
RISE, Scotland’s Left Alliance sometimes dubbed the Scottish Syriza, unveils its regional list candidates for Holyrood on Tuesday.
An electoral pact between the Scottish Socialists, the Scottish Left Project, environmentalists and independence campaigners, RISE will also launch a fundraising appeal for £100,000 to help with its bid to secure its first MSP in May.
The anti-austerity party, which is backed by former SNP deputy leader Jim Sillars, is standing only on the list system, where candidates can be elected with just 6 per cent of the vote.
Although RISE members can continue to rank candidates online today and tomorrow, some clear favourites have already emerged from recent hustings.
Jean Urquhart, the Independent MSP who quit the SNP over Nato policy in 2012, is expected to top the RISE list in the Highlands and Islands region.
While former Scottish Socialist MSP Colin Fox and trade union activist Cat Boyd are expected to lead the lists in Lothians and Glasgow respectively.
Also tipped are former SSP national secretary Kevin McVey in Central Scotland, Stirling University student president Andrew Kinnell in Mid-Scotland and Fife, and Unison activist and RISE co-founder Sarah Collins in South of Scotland.
The platform will be gender balanced across Scotland, with four male and four female lead candidates, as well as gender balanced within each regional list.
Among RISE’s policies are a maximum wage of £100,000, free public transport, an income-based Scottish service tax instead of council tax, ending charitable status for private schools, and, ultimately, an independent Scottish republic with its own currency.
RISE’s structure is modelled on Greece’s ruling party Syriza, which was formed in 2004 as a coalition of 13 radical groups, including Maoists, Trotskyists, feminists and environmentalists.
As part of the arrangement for 2016, the SSP will not field candidates in its own name, but will only stand under the RISE banner in order to avoid splitting the Left vote.
Fox said RISE would appeal to SNP supporters for their second votes to maximise the number of pro-independence MSPs in parliament.
“This is the biggest challenge the Left have presented in Scotland for a generation,” he said.
“We realise we have a mountain to climb to get anybody elected but we are well aware of the task involved, and some of us have done it before.
“RISE will be asking SNP supporters to give us their second vote. That’s the way to get the greatest number of pro-independence MSP in the next parliament.”
Although a RISE supporter, Urquhart said she had only recently decided to enter the candidate rankings.
“I've become much more involved with the movement and I'm impressed by lots of people in it,” she said.
Professor John Curtice of Strathclyde University’s politics department has said the challenge for RISE is convincing voters it offers something the SNP, Greens and Labour can’t.
Sillars also said recently that, with the SNP set to win almost all 73 constituencies, a vote for the party on the list as well would be “wasted” as it was unlikely to return more SNP MSPs.
He said a vote for RISE was a better option for a “strong socialist” voice at Holyrood.
A spokesman for the Scottish Greens, which is also pinning its hopes on the list, said: “Polling suggests Green MSPs will be elected from all 8 regions. We're looking forward to 2016 and our biggest and best election campaign to date.”
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