Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 19 November 2014.
Tricia Marwick
None
The next item of business is nominations for First Minister. I have received two valid nominations for the selection of the Parliament’s nominee as First Minister. The nominations, in alphabetical order, are Ruth Davidson and Nicola Sturgeon.
I will ask each nominee to speak in support of their candidacy for up to five minutes. After the nominees have spoken, members will be asked to cast their vote for their preferred candidate. A separate vote will be called for each candidate, and members may vote only once. A note explaining the procedures to be followed this afternoon has been placed on each member’s desk.
Once the voting has been completed, any member who has not yet voted will be invited to cast a vote to abstain. There will be a short break of a few minutes while the result is verified and I will then announce the result of the voting. A candidate will be elected if a simple Majority is obtained. No account will be taken of any votes to abstain in establishing whether a simple majority has been achieved.
We move on to the selection process. I call Ruth Davidson.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The term "majority" is used in two ways in Parliament. Firstly a Government cannot operate effectively unless it can command a majority in the House of Commons - a majority means winning more than 50% of the votes in a division. Should a Government fail to hold the confidence of the House, it has to hold a General Election. Secondly the term can also be used in an election, where it refers to the margin which the candidate with the most votes has over the candidate coming second. To win a seat a candidate need only have a majority of 1.
