SCOTTISH Tory leader David McLetchie failed last night to reclaim former Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind's seat of Edinburgh Pentlands.

But he seemed certain to take his place in the Scottish Parliament thanks to his No.1 position on the party's Lothians List.

The seat went to Labour's Iain Gray, an organiser for Oxfam.

The new PR voting system was also expected to carry SNP veteran campaigner Margo MacDonald back to frontline politics. She stormed from fourth to second place in the first past the post contest in Edinburgh South, making it clear during the evening that she still wants to see the SNP concentrate on a dash for independence as soon as possible. The seat was won by Labour whiz kid and former Edinburgh City Council finance convener Angus MacKay.

Speaking at Meadowbank Stadium after the result was an-nounced, Ms MacDonald was at pains to emphasise that she will not countenance any backsliding on independence. ''We are very glad to be going to the Scottish Parliament and even more pleased we will be taking the Scottish Parliament to the next step - independence.''

She would not be drawn on the strategy of how to achieve this but insisted: ''I want to see things move towards independence as quickly as possible. I want Scotland to take control of its own future.''

After the win for Labour had been announced in Edinburgh Pentlands, Mr McLetchie said it was a personal disappointment, but he said: ''I take heart from the fact we have seen a major step forward for the Scottish Conservatives throughout Scotland. We are back. We will have a real presence in this Parliament.''

He went on: ''We started this campaign by saying we are Scottish and British. We are proud to be both and that is what we will be working for in this Parliament.''

A year ago, very few outside of the Tory Party and Edinburgh legal circles had heard of David McLetchie and he has had a good election campaign, but winning Edinburgh Pentlands outright would have been a huge fillip for his fledgling leadership.

Edinburgh lawyer Kenny MacAskill failed to win first past the post for the SNP in Edinburgh Central where he came second to Labour's Susan Deacon. He is, however, expected to join Ms MacDonald in the Parliament due to his second place on the party's Lothian List.

They are expected to form a nucleus around which those in the SNP who are not entirely enamoured of leader Alex Salmond's gradualist approach towards independence will gather.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats' Margaret Smith, a former councillor and her party's health spokeswoman, took Edinburgh West, fighting off a challenge from the area's one-time Westminster MP, that doughty campaigner Lord Selkirk, better known as James-Douglas Hamilton.

The former Scottish Office Minister, however, is expected to become an MSP once again courtesy of the party's regional list in Lothians where he holds second place.

The former Scottish Office Transport Minister, Malcolm Chisholm, easily won the Edinburgh North and Leith constituency which he already represents at Westminster. Mr Chisholm resigned from the Government over a cut in single parents' benefits and was later snubbed by Donald Dewar who did not include him in his pre-Holyrood campaign team.

After his victory, Mr Chisholm spoke about ''new politics but old objectives'', about waging the war against poverty and inequality. He is likely to be an experienced and principled voice on Labour's back benches at Holyrood unless Mr Dewar relents.

The victor in Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Labour's Susan Deacon, is a business consultant and former administrative executive at Heriot Watt University. She is a possible junior Minister in the new Scottish Labour administration and has been sharing the education portfolio in Donald Dewar's campaign team in the run-up to the election.

There was another female victor in Edinburgh Central, Sarah Boyack, daughter of the late Jim Boyack, a renowned Home Rule campaigner.

Rhona Brankin, a staunch Blairite and member of Donald Dewar's campaign team, enjoyed a reasonably comfortable ride, taking Midlothian with a 5000 majority over the SNP's Angus Robertson.

A former Scottish Party chairwoman, Ms Brankin, 49, is the party's Scottish health spokeswoman.

In Linlithgow, Edinburgh City Labour councillor Mary Mulligan was made to work hard for victory, holding off SNP hopeful Stewart Stevenson by just under 3000 votes.

Ms Mulligan's success will have been tempered by the severe defeat of her political ally, Ross Martin, who lost Falkirk West to the Independent candidate, Dennis Canavan.

West Lothian Council's convener of business services, the exotically named Bristo Muldoon, also took Livingston for Labour with the SNP's Greg McCarra coming second.

Mr Muldoon, a business analyst with Great North Eastern Railways, is one of the few Labour MSPs with private sector business experience.

Meanwhile, with the first Lothians seat declared only well after 4am, one candidate voiced the frustrations of many by attacking the slowness of the count.

Mike Pringle, the Lib-Dem candidate who came third in Edinburgh South, the first seat to declare, said the situation was ''a disgrace''.

Mr Tom Aitchison, Returning Office at the Edinburgh count, said there had been considerable delays and the reasons for the situation would be examined by senior members of the election team.

He said: ''A number of factors contributed to delays, no least the fact that we had 17 difference parties on the regional list, which was counted simultaneously with the six first-past-the-post constituencies.

''There were also a number of procedural hitches which held up the announcement of several results.''