 The first meeting of the fifth session of the Parliament is now resumed with the election of the Presiding Officer. As previously announced, I have received five valid nominations. In alphabetical order the nominations are Murdo Fraser, Joanne Lamont, Ken Macintosh, John Scott, Elaine Smith. The elections shall proceed in accordance with rule 11.9 of standing orders. If no member receives an overall majority in the first round of voting, there will be subsequent rounds. Members should remain in their seats until I invite them to collect their ballot papers from clerks at the back of the chamber. Members with surnames beginning Adam to Gilruth should collect their ballot papers from the desk to my left, which is that site. Members with surnames beginning Golden to MacDonald should use the desk at the back right in front, and members with surnames beginning McKee to Yousaf should use the desk to my right. They told me to do this. Members should confirm their names with the clerks before being issued with a ballot paper. For members' privacy in marking ballot papers, voting booths are available at the back of the chamber. Ballot papers should be marked with an X before being folded and placed in one of the ballot boxes provided at the rear of the chamber. At the end of each voting period, I shall invite any scrutineers nominated by each candidate to monitor the counting of votes at the back of the chamber. There, clerks will enter the ballot boxes and begin counting votes. Candidates may also observe the count. I will announce the results of each round of voting when all the votes are counted and verified. I now declare the election of the Presiding Officer open. Members should now proceed to the appropriate desk to collect their ballot papers and then vote. If members have voted, could you please resume your seats so that I can be sure that you have indeed voted? We will wait for you, Ms Bailey. Thank you. Voting for the first round of the Presiding Officer election is now closed. I would invite any scrutineers appointed by the candidates to the back of the chamber to observe the counting of ballot papers. Candidates may also observe the count. In the first round of voting in the election, the number of votes cast for each candidate was as follows. The total votes cast was 128. Murdo Fraser, 23. Joanne Lamont, 23. Ken Macintosh, 58. John Scott, 17. Elaine Smith, 7. As no member has received an overall majority of the votes cast and as Elaine Smith received the fewest votes, she will be eliminated from the election and a further round will take place with the following candidates. Murdo Fraser, Joanne Lamont, Ken Macintosh and John Scott will now have a short break while new ballot papers are printed and I suspend for five minutes, but he will be able to stay here. The voting period is now open, using the same voting procedure as before. I am not going to do my airhost dispute and do left, right and in the middle. Ms Bailey, I am sure that you will remember where you are supposed to go without an explanation. If everybody could resume their seats, I can just make sure that you have all voted. That would be really helpful. As voting round is now closed, as before, candidates in scooting years wish to see the votes being counted, please join the clerks at the back of the room. The results of that round of voting is as follows. Total votes cast 128. There was one spoiled ballot paper. The results are Murdo Fraser, 26. Joanne Lamont, 26. Ken Macintosh, 60. John Scott, 15. Accordingly, as no candidate received an overall majority of the votes cast and as John Scott received the fewest votes, he is eliminated from the election. A further round will take place with the following candidates, Murdo Fraser, Joanne Lamont and Ken Macintosh. We are going to suspend for five minutes to allow ballot papers to be printed. This round of voting is now open. If you could vote at the back of the room and then resume your seats immediately, that would be helpful. This round of voting is now closed. Again, if candidates and their agents would like to go to the back of the chamber to witness the count, you are welcome to do so. The result of the vote on the third round of voting is as follows, 128 votes cast. Murdo Fraser, 31. Joanne Lamont, 26. Ken Macintosh, 71. Accordingly, as Ken Macintosh has received more votes than the total number of votes received by the other candidates and is more than 25 per cent of members have voted, Ken Macintosh is elected as Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament. I take this opportunity to thank the other candidates who put themselves forward, Murdo Fraser, Joanne Lamont, John Scott and Elaine Smith, and I'm sure you wish to join with me. I've known Ken Macintosh as a colleague and a friend since 1999, and I wish you well in what is the best job in Scotland. Now, I present your new Presiding Officer. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you all my fellow MSPs. I'm very grateful indeed for the honour and the privilege that you have granted me to be your next Presiding Officer. I want to thank also my fellow candidates. Before I go any further, can I pay a particular tribute to my predecessor, Presiding Officer, Tricia Marwick, who I think will be going up to join her family in the gallery. I imagine that Tricia will be full of many and mixed emotions today, but I suggest to her that she finds room for at least a small feeling of pride, pride that she has served her constituency, her region and her country with distinction over 17 years, and pride too that she had the courage to begin the process of parliamentary reform, a process that I would be honoured to follow in her footsteps. I'm proud that she has left the Parliament more mature, more established and more confident than ever before, ready for our new powers, ready for the new challenges that undoubtedly lie ahead. As Tricia and many of our former colleagues stepped down, it gives me great pleasure to welcome and thank all of you, the class of 2016. I can see around me many familiar faces and friends and I welcome you back, but I see too a huge number of new members freshly elected. I can just say on a personal level that it's a record number. The energy, the infectious enthusiasm and the optimism with which you have filled this building already in the few days that you have been here has invigorated me. It has refreshed this place and reminded us all of the opportunity that the Scottish Parliament offers all of us to make a better Scotland. As we look ahead over the next five years, I hope that we can work together. I do, however, wish to apologise now. With a record number of new faces, I am sure that I am going to make some mistakes in the next few days. I will bound to misidentify you. I will probably actually relocate your region or your constituency to another part of Scotland. In the last few days, I have warmly congratulated on their election to this Parliament two members of our catering staff, a BBC journalist and a special branch officer working for Prince Charles last night. However, the revitalising of this Parliament reminds me of the promise offered by devolution, which is to work together across the party divide for the common good. I imagine that all of you and all your families are filled with pride that you serve as MSPs in the Scottish Parliament. I know mine does. I know that my late father would have enjoyed this moment. My father was never elected—never stood for office, actually—he was a head teacher, but he was asked to be a candidate three times on three different occasions. The most revealing aspect about my father is that he was asked by three different political parties. For the first time perhaps in my life, I hope that I have inherited that quality from him. I am very conscious that each one of us, each one of you, has a tremendous responsibility on a duty to the people of Scotland. I see it as my responsibility and my duty to help you in that task. Thank you very much. Nominations for the positions of deputy are now open. Members may collect nomination forms from the business team in room T103, which is located within the chamber desk. Completed nomination forms should be returned to the business team no later than 4.30pm. When submitting nomination papers, candidates or their representatives may wish to provide the name of any member who is acting a scrutineer on behalf of the candidate. Parliament will reconvene at 4.30pm. When I will announce the nominations received for the position of deputy, I will then suspend the Parliament for the further period of one hour and reconvene at 5.30pm for the election. I now suspend this meeting of the Parliament.