THE Scottish Greens polled fewer than 6000 votes across Scotland after their smallest campaign since the outset of devolution.
The party stood in just three of the country’s 59 seats and lost its deposit in two of them. In 2015, it stood in 31 seats.
Across England and Wales the Greens stood in 80 per cent of seats.
Co-convener Patrick Harvie had the best result of the night when he came fourth behind the Tories in Glasgow North, adding 967 votes to his party’s 2015 result, increasing vote share from 6.2 to 9.7 per cent.
In Falkirk, Debra Pickering went from a standing start to 1.7 per cent of the vote, after trying to capitalise on opposition to fracking in the constituency. She had 908 votes.
However in Edinburgh North & Leith, the Greens went backwards compared to 2015, with Lorna Slater seeing the party’s votes fall from 3140 to 1727, and vote share drop from 5.5 to 3.4 per cent, as the Greens came fifth behind the LibDems.
The 5,886 votes for the Greens represent 0.2 per cent of the Scottish total, but was better than Ukip, which polled 5,302 votes despite standing in 10 seats.
Ukip Scotland leader David Coburn MEP saw his vote share halve in Kirkcaldy & Cowdenbeath as he polled just 540 votes.
The Greens said they had run an a “targeted campaign” because of a lack of funds.
Mr Harvie, a Glasgow list MSP, said: “With just a few weeks’ notice, and without the large financial backing available to other parties, Greens can be proud of the tightly-focused campaign we ran.
“We look to the fact that [Green MP] Caroline Lucas did not build the foundations for a winning campaign in Brighton overnight; it took years of dedication that started back in 1997.
“We are in this for the long haul.”
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