The story in Ayrshire: Scottish Parliament Election 2021
Find out which MSPs have been elected.
Last updated 8th May 2021
It's SNP across the board as the results are declared for Ayrshire constituencies in the 2021 Scottish Parliament Election.
SNP have GAINED the Ayr seat with Siobhian Brown elected as the MSP. It ends a 21 year-old hold by John Scott of the Conservatives who misses out by just 170 votes.
SNP HOLD the Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley seat with Willie Coffey securing a majority of 11,681 votes.
The successor of Jeane Freeman in Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley will also be SNP as the party HOLDS the seat with Elena Whitham.
SNP also HOLDS Cunninghame South with Ruth Maguire elected. She secured more 15,200 votes. It was more than double the nearest candidate, Labour's Louise McPhater.
And Cunninghame North is held by the SNP with Kenneth Gibson re-elected for another term. He secured a margin of nearly 8,000 votes over Jamie Greene of the Conservatives.
It wasn't enough to help the SNP claim an overall majority in Scotland, but Nicola Sturgeon has still declared the results across the country an "emphatic victory."
Ms Sturgeon insisted that her chances of winning an overall majority, which declined dramatically after the SNP failed to capture Aberdeenshire West from the Tories, had always been a "long shot''.
With the SNP having made some gains in other constituencies - such as former Westminster leader Angus Robertson taking Edinburgh Central - and with the party's Kaukab Stewart becoming the first woman of colour to be elected as an MSP, Ms Sturgeon said she was "thrilled'' with the results.
The SNP leader insisted: "We have won more constituency seats than we did in the last election, we have won a higher share of the vote in the constituency ballot than in 2016, and actually we have won more votes and a higher share of the vote than any party in the history of devolution.
"By any standard this is a historic achievement, a quite extraordinary achievement for the SNP - our vote share is up, the vote share of the other main parties is down.
"So the SNP has won this election emphatically, the message we took to the people has been endorsed, and I now intend to get back to work to deliver on all of what we put to the Scottish people.''
The SNP has pledged to hold a second independence referendum, with Ms Sturgeon having already said she wants this vote to be held before the end of 2023.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has however insisted it would be "irresponsible and reckless'' to have such a ballot as Britain emerges from the coronavirus crisis.