Alba will contest Holyrood election in May, say leading party figures

Senior figures in the Alba Party have insisted it will contest this May’s Holyrood elections.

A group of members calling themselves the Alba Continuation Group said the party would be on the regional list ballot.

The move comes despite leader Kenny MacAskill telling members at the weekend they would likely not contest the election, and that Alba’s registration may lapse due to its “perilous financial state”.

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The pro-independence party faces the prospect of being unable to field candidates when Scots go to the polls in May.

However, a statement from senior figures in the party, including former SNP MP Angus MacNeil, former Solidarity leader Tommy Sheridan, and Christina Hendry, the niece of Alba founder Alex Salmond, said that a “transitional leadership team” had been formed to “ensure the party can stand”.

This, they said, would give “hundreds of thousands of pro-independence voters” the opportunity of voting for Alba on the list section of Holyrood’s ballot, and “preventing those votes from being wasted or captured by Reform UK”.

The group added that they would be “putting the continuation of the party and our plans to a full membership vote within days”, adding that “the sovereign people of Scotland deserve that choice”.

Police Scotland received a complaint about irregularities in the Alba Party’s finances in May 2025.

In an email to members on Saturday, Mr MacAskill set out a number of difficulties experienced by Alba, adding that he expects matters around the police investigation into the finances to “progress further shortly”.

Adding that the party’s “financial position remains acute”, the former Scottish justice secretary said that Alba was no longer able to meet requirements to file accounts to the Electoral Commission, meaning that “fighting an election is simply beyond our resources”.