Alex Salmond has said voting for the SNP on the regional list is the 'ultimate wasted vote' as he rallied supporters in a speech.
The former SNP First Minister, who led the party during the 2014 independence referendum, is now running on the north-east regional list to become an MSP for the pro-Independence Alba Party.
He has urged nationalists to back Alba on the list in a bid to secure more pro-Indy members at Holyrood for a 'supermajority'.
Salmond described the Alba Party as the Yes campaign "reborn in political form".
The former first minister addressed Alba's first online candidates' conference on Saturday, where he said independence supporters who backed the SNP on the list vote were guilty of "ridiculous posturing".
Alba are running four candidates in each regional list of Scotland, encouraging SNP voters to give their list vote to Alba - a tactic they say could lead to a "supermajority" for pro-independence parties.
He was introduced by Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, the former MP who was one of several figures to defect from the SNP to Alba in the last few days.
Mr Salmond said: "Why should independence-supporting colleagues not want there to be an independence supermajority?
"Why would they rather that the indy numbers were lighter and the unionist numbers heavier in the Scots parliament?
"That is, in my estimation, ridiculous posturing for any independence supporter, caused by the realisation that SNP votes on the regional list are the ultimate wasted votes."
Mr Salmond said the cause of Scottish independence had never been the "sole preserve" of the SNP.
He said the 2014 campaign for a Yes vote in the referendum "most resembles our new party" and suggested "the Yes campaign of the summer of 2014 is now reborn in political form in the ranks of Alba".
Mr Salmond said the conference would go on to discuss the party's positions on "economic recovery from Covid, education, women and equality".
Earlier, Alba said more than 4,000 members had signed up in the week since it had launched, including two sitting MPs.
The first opinion poll taken since the party launched put it on 3% of the regional vote.
