THE next couple of weeks will see the election campaign step up a gear as the parties set out their policies and promises in their manifestos.

Scottish Labour is due to be first up with leader Anas Sarwar expected to unveil his party’s key document to voters on Monday, April 12. Two days later it will be the turn of the Scottish Greens with co-leaders Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater due to make public the full details of their party’s election vows.

As revealed in The National yesterday, the Greens are to restate their commitment to an independent Scotland joining the EU and will also propose that Scotland should play a bigger role on the global stage in readiness for independence.

They want the country to apply for associate membership of the World Health Organisation and the Nordic Council and have observer status at the Arctic Council.

Then, the following day Nicola Sturgeon will publish the SNP manifesto with the document to put the independence case central to the party’s bid to win a record fourth term in government.

Polls suggest the SNP will win the election and are on course for a majority of MSPs in Holyrood – it would be only the second time since 1999 that a party has gained a majority in the Scottish Parliament (the first was in 2011 with the SNP under former leader Alex Salmond).

Willie Rennie’s LibDems are expected to be the fourth party to set out their list of campaign promises with their manifesto due to be published on Friday, April 16.

Scottish Tory leader Douglas Ross told journalists earlier this week his party’s manifesto would be unveiled on Monday, April 19. He has been campaigning on the central message of stopping an SNP majority and a second independence referendum.

However, polling has suggested the Tories could slip behind Labour with the party returning to third place.

Alex Salmond’s new pro-independence Alba Party has yet to set an exact date for its manifesto launch, but party sources have told The National it will be out the week beginning April 19.