ALEX Salmond has conceded that Alba will not win any seats in Holyrood as some of the regional votes were revealed.

The National spoke to the former First Minister outside the P&J arena in Aberdeen, just after the regional results for Donside were released, but as more results were revealed Salmond became more realistic.

The Alba Party won 743 votes (2.07%) for the regional list in Donside. Later in the evening the Banffshire and Buchan regional results were announced – with Alba gathering 1135 votes (3.43%).

In Aberdeen Central, Alba only won 597 votes.

It came as the SNP swept up on the constituency list, winning Aberdeen Donside and Banffshire and Buchan Coast.

But all eyes in Aberdeen were on Alba to see if Salmond could make a return to the Scottish Parliament.

Speaking to BBC Scotland, Salmond said: “Whether we’ll make it tomorrow, I don’t think so on the results we’ve seen.”

Salmond argued that Alba had put up a “good substantial show”, adding: “We take out of this election that the arguments we’ve been putting forward will be proved correct – independence will be front and centre.”

When The National spoke to Salmond earlier in the day, he was confident but not too boastful, but at that point only Donside had released the regional votes.

He had said: “We’ve got a bit to go, we’ve got nine constituencies to come in the regional list in the North East of Scotland, we know something of what’s happening across the country and Alba is definitely registering, we’re definitely there.

“But our objective of achieving a parliamentary breakthrough was always going to be hugely challenging, after six weeks’ existence as a political party.”

Despite the low vote turn out, Salmond was adamant that Alba had actually helped the SNP to keep Banffshire and Buchan Coast.

The SNP’s Stewart Stevenson won the seat comfortably with a majority of 6583 in 2016, but this time, Karen Adam only won by 772 votes over Tory candidate Mark Findlater.

He said: “Obviously, we’re hopeful that the SNP will win a majority, and we advised people to vote SNP at constituency level, in fact Alba as far as we can tell may have saved the SNP Banff and Buchan Coastal.

“It’s a very narrow majority and without the Alba advice to people within the constituency – we’ll see the number of Alba votes – it’s doubtful many people would have gone to the polls at all.”

However, Adam put her win down to the Tories’ Brexit policy and the huge fishing industry in the constituency.

In a touching moment during her speech she used sign language to send a message to her deaf father. Speaking after her win, she said: “I’m elated, I’m absolutely delighted, I’m so grateful to the people of Banffshire and Buchan Coast for putting that trust in me to be their representative and MSP.

“I do really feel this is a seat that perhaps Tories should have been able to walk in terms of their Brexit deal, but it just shows that’s been absolutely rejected.

“They did not win this seat; their deal is an absolute failure and the people are calling out to the SNP for responsible leadership through this pandemic and of course to have their choice on whether they want to have an independent Scotland.”

For Aberdeen Donside, the second seat of the day to be called, Jackie Dunbar was emotional as she described following in the footsteps of her mentor Brian Adam, who was an MSP for Donside from 2011 until he sadly died in 2013. Dunbar, who won with a comfortable majority of 9026 over Tory candidate Harriet Cross, said: “Everything I know as a politician I learned from that man.

“He taught me and he taught me well and I still try and live up to his standards every day, and I say that with a lump in my throat, because I know today I will be following him and I think his workings have just carried on, and I think if everyone did what he did we wouldn’t go wrong in life.”

And the last seat of the night was Aberdeen Central, where Kevin Stewart held the seat for the SNP with a comfortable majority of 6594.