The Scottish Greens could more than double their number of MSPs and help form a large majority in favour of Scottish independence at Holyrood, a new poll suggests.
The latest modelling by polling guru Professor Sir John Curtice has the SNP on 68 seats, a slim majority, while the Greens will take 13 seats – more than double their current haul of five.
It follows the final Scottish election survey by YouGov, which put Nicola Sturgeon’s party on 52 per cent in the constituency vote, with the Scottish Greens set to take 13 per cent of the regional vote.
Alex Salmond’s pro-independence Alba party is also forecast to pick up a seat in the Mid Scotland and Fife region, where it received 7 per cent of the vote in the YouGov study.
If replicated this Thursday, the result would see 82 pro-independence MSPs elected. It would means almost two-thirds of the Scottish parliament backing another vote on separation from the UK.
Mr Salmond and his allies have talked about creating a “supermajority” of 80 to 90 MSPs for independence – although he has said there is no “exact number” for what defines a supermajority.
The latest surveys by Opinium and Survation also put the SNP on course to win a majority at Holyrood. A Savanta ComRes poll for The Scotsman suggests Ms Sturgeon’s party could narrowly miss out on a majority.
However, there would still be a clear pro-independence majority, with the Scottish Greens projected to return nine MSPs, with 9 per cent backing on the list vote.
The Scottish Greens are increasingly optimistic about growing the size of their group at Holyrood. Most recent opinion polls point to a larger vote share for Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater’s party than in 2016.
Many commentators have suggested the Scottish Greens could be the big beneficiary of Mr Salmond’s focus on the Scotland’s PR voting system and the supermajority concept.
Many pro-independence SNP voters appear to keen to back Ms Sturgeon’s party on the constituency vote, but are willing to give the Greens their list vote.
Backing a second independence referendum during Tuesday night’s BBC election debate, Mr Harvie said the possibility of an independent Scotland would allow the country to shape a more radical future.
“I don’t think we can afford to pass up the opportunity to shape our own recovery,” he said. “This is a moment of incredible opportunity to decide what kind of country is going to emerge from Covid.”
