Although the verdict was in little doubt, all party leaders had the opportunity to put themselves forward to become First Minister of Scotland.
And all six party leaders addressed the chamber in an effort to gain some of the votes.
There were three rounds of voting as no one candidate had a majority until Alex Cole Hamilton, with his 10 votes, and Russell Findlay with 11/12 votes had dropped out.
Q Manivannan MSP had to raise a point of order at one stage advising that he was unable to vote and would have voted for Gillian Mackay, the Scottish Greens co-leader.
MSPs voted along party lines, with new members having been shown how to use the electronic voting system earlier in the day.
At 3.18pm the members in the chamber voted to elect John Swinney as First Minister of Scotland. Mr Swinney will be sworn in on Wednesday at the Court of Session.
The first minister was joined on the SNP front benches
by his “old” cabinet – under exception of Culture Secretary, Angus Robertson, who failed to retain his seat in Edinburgh Central, and a few former Cabinet members who were sitting in the public gallery. Parliamentarians such as Fiona Hyslop and Shona Robison as well as Graeme Dey and Bruce Crawford watched on as an SNP First Minister was elected for the fifth time.
The new Presiding Officer, Kenny Gibson, congratulated them all on being well behaved and not going over the four minute limit. He hoped that augurs well and that others will take note for the future.
This may be one of the best behaved parliamentary sessions as nobody yet has much to argue over, the cabinet is still to be appointed and the programme of work set.
All had just finished six weeks of electioneering, but it felt as though there was something new.
John Swinney said during this speech that he welcomed Anas Sarwar’s comments on collaboration. He said: “In addition to setting out the policy direction of the government that I offer to lead, I also set out a willingness to work with others in this parliament to seek agreement on measures that will improve the lives of people in Scotland.”
On the day after the election the First Minister was clear that would not include members of Reform. Is this a dilution of that first resolve? We shall have to wait and see. Mr Swinney approached all leaders in the chamber and shook them by the hand – including Malcolm Offord.
