Alex Salmond's death could signal the end for the Alba Party he founded, a leading pollster has told The Herald.
Mr Salmond's death on October 12 shocked the political world. However, Alba were defiant the party would continue on in his legacy.
The pro-independence party was created by the former Scottish first minister in 2021 following a significant falling out between Mr Salmond and his former protégé Nicola Sturgeon, who was then the leader of the SNP.
That row stemmed from the Scottish Government's handling of sexual misconduct allegations made against him in 2018.
He was acquitted of all charges in 2020 and was awarded £500,000 in a civil case against the Scottish Government.
However, much of Mr Salmond, and the Alba Party's existence in politics centred around fierce criticism of the SNP, with some councillors, MPs and an MSP jumping ship to join the party.
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But Mr Salmond had big plans for the party, including his ambition to return to Holyrood, bringing dozens of Alba MSPs with him.
However, recent polling from Survation has not matched this, predicting Alba to win just 1% of the constituency vote and 2% in the regional list.
Allan Faulds, who runs Ballot Box Scotland, told The Herald that without Alex Salmond, the party could struggle to win over voters.
He said: "Alex Salmond and Alba has been a really interesting circumstance because, effectively, he was simultaneously Alba’s biggest asset and their biggest liability.
“Whatever people may think of Alex Salmond, he was a big, big political figure.
“He was the kind of person who – he hadn’t held any elected office for 14 years, and he was still someone who commanded attention, who could grab headlines.
“If Alba did not have Alex Salmond, they would have been an absolutely nothing, meaningless party that no one paid any attention to."
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Mr Salmond founded the party with the intention of delivering a "super majority" for Scottish independence in Holyrood, urging pro-independence parties, including the SNP to work together.
In the general election, the party won just 1.7% of the vote, failing to have any candidate elected.
The party's only parliamentary representation to date has come from defectors from other parties - namely the SNP.
Former MPs Kenny MacAskill and Neale Hanvey defected from the SNP in 2021 and in 2023 one-time SNP leadership candidate Ash Regan became the Alba's only MSP when she defected from the party, arguing it had "lost its focus on independence".
Ms Regan had previously served as community safety minister in the Scottish Government, but quit that position in 2022 so she could vote against the SNP’s controversial gender recognition reforms as they went through Holyrood.
Mr Faulds went on to say: "Remember Alba are a party who not only haven’t got anyone elected, they haven’t even close to getting anyone elected, and Alex Salmond – for all that he was well known and kept them in the spotlight – he was also one of the least popular politicians in Scotland over the past few years.
“He was a huge barrier to them getting anyone elected.
“And I suppose kind of the big question over Alba now is they don’t have anyone particularly serious – any particularly serious figures.
“The headline grabbing person is gone. And they have already proven that, you know, they just haven’t been attracting support from the SNP, even though the SNP have been bleeding it.
“I can’t see Alba mounting to much. I think it was already very difficult for them to break through.
“I think that without Salmond, that’s basically it. It seems like the end.”
However, following Mr Salmond's death acting leader Mr MacAskill, a lifelong friend of the former first minister, said the party will continue in his honour.
He told BBC Radio Scotland on Monday: "Of course the party continues, we owe it to Alex."
He added: “It was never the Alex Salmond party, it was Alex Salmond’s inspiration and Alex Salmond’s driving force, but the party is made up of thousands more and, as I say, that legacy will continue.”
And in a letter to Alba Party members last week, Mr MacAskill said: "The Party grieves the loss of their founder and leader. Across Scotland people are mourning the loss of their former first minister.
"But the dream he cherished so closely and came so close to delivering will never die.
"We will honour him."
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