IN one of her first pledges after she was elected as her party’s new leader, Kezia Dugdale said she wanted to encourage fresh faces to stand for Holyrood.

She spoke of leading a “new generation” of MSPs on the Labour benches, as part of her strategy of renewing her party, and said she trusted party members to choose who she considered “the best candidates for the future.”

Read more: Labour MPs to be given free vote on Trident renewal, says Unite's McCluskey

Asked, in the days after her landslide win, if she was sending her members - who select who stands - a message, she replied: “Absolutely”.

So when the party’s candidates were unveiled in February most saw her drive as falling flat, despite the leader’s insistence that she was delighted with the outcome. The regional lists - representing the most realistic route to Holyrood with polls predicting that Labour will struggle to win a single constituency - were largely dominated by veterans.

Highly-rated candidates such as Cat Headley, a solicitor who was afforded a high-profile role at Labour’s manifesto launch, and Johanna Baxter, a member of the National Executive Committee, have been left facing impossible odds in constituencies after being ranked seventh and fifth respectively in the Lothian and West Scotland regions.

“Kez set herself up for a bit of a fall,” says one party insider. “Incumbents have a big advantage - they have full time staff, know the process and when people are asked to pick between a list of names, they’ll tend to go for ones they know.”

It is only in Central Scotland, an area of relative strength for the party, that members rejected sitting MSPs or former MPs, such as Anas Sarwar and Thomas Docherty who find themselves well placed in Glasgow and Mid Scotland and Fife, in favour of candidates untested at Westminster or Holyrood. Two find themselves at the top of the list and almost certain to be elected in a region in which the party picked up more than a third of list votes five years ago.

Richard Leonard is thought by Labour insiders to be the most exciting prospect of a limited new intake. A former chairman of the Scottish Labour executive and Scotland organiser for the GMB Trade Union, he is highly regarded as an experienced and articulate left-winger.

Read more: Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale: I won't quit even if we're beaten by Tories

The 54-year-old, who lives in Paisley, lost to the SNP’s Adam Ingram in Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley in 2011 but his position at the top of Labour’s list this time means he is all but assured of a regional seat.

Leonard, who will also contest the Airdrie and Shotts constituency seat against SNP cabinet member Alex Neil, said it was his experience in fighting for working people as a union organiser that had driven him to stand for the parliament. He insists working people are “hungry for change” and that only Labour can deliver.

He says jobs and economic regeneration will be his priority if elected, calling for industrial policy and a manufacturing strategy led by Government. He also wants to become a “champion for pensioners”, pinpointing dignity in retirement as a personal passion.

He said: “We need Labour MSPs who can take on the SNP and win the battle of ideas with nationalism by putting forward the positive Labour case for radical social and economic change.”

Monica Lennon, a 35-year-old Labour councillor in South Lanarkshire, lost a selection battle to stand in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse, before finding herself second on the Central Scotland list, four places ahead of Margaret McCulloch, an MSP in the last term who she lost out to in the constituency contest. Without a constituency, she had been spending much of her time helping Elaine Smith, a vocal supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, with her campaign in Coatbridge and Chryston.

A former town planner, she joined the party ahead of the 2010 general election before she was encouraged to stand for the council by fellow members four years ago. The mother-of-one speaks passionately about Dugdale’s role in transforming the party and says her politics align perfectly with the manifesto unveiled last week.

“The selections were really competitive, there were more experienced people and better known names, but the feedback I received was that people thought I’d made quite an impact as a councillor, with the campaign to keep the University of the West of Scotland campus in Hamilton and facing up to [planning minister] Alex Neil over an application for an incinerator.

“I wouldn’t have put myself forward if I didn’t think I could hit the ground running. It’s hugely exciting, if it turns out that I’m elected I just want to get stuck in and do a job that will make the people of Central Scotland proud.”

There remains a possibility that Daniel Johnson, who came fourth on the Lothian list, will join Leonard and Lennon. He faces one of the only winnable constituency fights for Labour. Standing in Edinburgh Southern, he can take heart from Ian Murray emerging from an SNP onslaught in the same area at last year’s general election.

But when Dugdale looks behind her at Holyrood next week at what will almost certainly be her depleted ranks, the faces staring back will be largely familiar.