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Daily Record
Politics
Peter Davidson

Alex Salmond to be elected Alba party leader as challenge from contender fails

Former First Minister Alex Salmond is set to be elected as the leader of the Alba party at its conference later this year.

The ex- SNP leader was facing a leadership challenge from former journalist Rob Brown ahead of the inaugural conference in Greenock next month.

Anyone challenging for the leadership of the party requires 50 nominations, however Salmond was the only candidate to receive the amount needed.

Alba members will descend on Greenock Town Hall on Saturday and Sunday, September 11 and 12, for their first conference since the party was established just before the Holyrood election earlier this year.

An Alba party spokesperson said: "Our draft agenda will be published later today to all of our party members. Our inaugural conference sold out within 48 hours and we were thankfully able to secure further capacity.

"We are confident that this agenda sets out that we have the People, the Policies, and the Plan for independence to take Scotland forward."

It comes as the party says nuclear weapons should be removed from day one if Scotland becomes an independent country.

Alba is set to include the policy in its draft agenda for its conference which will be published later today.

The party hopes its policy will put pressure on the SNP from supporters of nuclear disarmament.

At the Holyrood election Alba failed to win any MSPs in the Scottish Parliament, but it has two MPs and a number of councillors across the country who left the SNP in order to join.

Salmond attempted to persuade SNP voters to back Nicola Sturgeon in constituencies and lend his new party their support on the list vote in an attempt to create what he termed a pro-independence "supermajority" of MSPs.

However, the party only won 1.7% of the vote.

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