Yahoo – AFP,
15 Oct 2014
Deputy
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon talks to carers during a meeting in Renfrew,
Scotland on September 16, 2014 (AFP Photo/Leon Neal)
|
London
(AFP) - Nicola Sturgeon will become the new leader of the pro-independence
Scottish National Party -- and therefore Scotland's first minister -- as she
was the only candidate when nominations closed on Wednesday.
Sturgeon,
Scotland's deputy first minister, will replace SNP leader and current First
Minister Alex Salmond.
He
announced his intention to resign after Scots voted to stay in the United
Kingdom in the September 18 referendum.
Sturgeon's
leadership of the left-of-centre party will be officially confirmed at the SNP
conference next month.
Following
that, her election as first minister must be approved by the Scottish
parliament, where the SNP has a slim majority, and receive the assent of Queen
Elizabeth II.
"I am
delighted that Nicola Sturgeon will succeed Alex Salmond as leader of the
SNP," the party's business convener Derek Mackay said.
"She
will be a fantastic new leader of both the party and our country," he
said.
Sturgeon,
44, was seen as the brains behind Scotland's independence campaign, overseeing
the White Paper, a prospectus for separation.
Scotland
voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to remain in the UK. London promised the
swift devolution of major powers to the Scottish parliament if Scots rejected
independence.
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