Polling stations have closed across Renfrewshire and the rest of Scotland as voting ends in the 2026 Scottish Parliament election.
Voting officially finished at 10pm on Thursday, with ballot boxes now being transported to Braehead Arena ahead of Friday’s count.
Unlike Westminster and council elections, there will be no overnight count, with counting instead due to begin at 9am on Friday morning.
Traditionally, election counting started immediately after polls closed, but this changed at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election due to Covid-19 restrictions and has remained in place since.
Voters across the Paisley, Renfrewshire North and Cardonald, and Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley constituencies cast ballots for both constituency MSPs and the West Scotland regional list.
Across Renfrewshire, voting took place at 68 polling places and 190 polling stations, staffed by around 500 election workers throughout the day.
More than 188,000 people were registered to vote across the three constituencies, with more than 33,000 postal votes issued ahead of polling day.
A total of 129 MSPs will be elected across Scotland. The Scottish Parliament is made up of 73 constituency MSPs and 56 regional MSPs, with 65 seats needed for an overall majority.
The count at Braehead Arena will cover all three Renfrewshire constituencies along with the local West Scotland regional list vote totals.
The first stage of the process will be verification, where officials check ballot paper totals from each polling station before votes are counted for individual candidates and parties.
Estimated declaration times on Friday are 3pm for Paisley, Renfrewshire North and Cardonald, and Renfrewshire West and Levern Valley, with the West Scotland regional result expected around 4pm.
Results timings remain subject to change depending on the speed of the count and any recount requests.