IT'S just a matter of days until voters in Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse head to the polls to elect a new MSP.
The by-election has been called after Christina McKelvie, a beloved figure within the SNP, died earlier this year aged 57. She had been on leave from her ministerial role after being diagnosed with stage two breast cancer the year prior.
The by-election process to find Christina's replacement has been pretty fraught, with Reform UK being accused of pushing "racist" adverts against Anas Sarwar and bringing divisive politics up to Scotland.
On Monday, Reform UK leader Nigel Farage invited journalists to a media event in Hamilton which ultimately never happened, after expressing anger at protesters targeting his events in Scotland.
He accused The Herald of leaking his location to activists as a small group of campaigners demonstrate outside his press conference on Monday morning, in an attack on the Scottish media condemned by the newspaper's editor and the National Union of Journalists.
Elsewhere, Labour's candidate has been branded the "invisible man" for avoiding debates and media appearances.
It hasn't been a great advertisement for Scottish politics at its best.
Professor John Curtice last week told us he expects the SNP to win on Thursday, but Reform UK could sneak into second-place ahead of Labour. It's thought Farage's party is performing well in the area.
We have been out on the campaign trail with Katy Loudon (below) and John Swinney, challenging Sarwar over his party's poor efforts, and speaking to constituents in the area about their views on the whole thing.
On Monday we even provided a pretty detailed account of Farage's shambolic campaign visit (though if you're cynical, you could say it went exactly to plan for the former Ukip leader...)
Our coverage so far has been pretty extensive, but you can expect lots more this week.
- Our in-depth profile of the constituency
- A special feature on the big issues affecting this by-election
- Analysis from our political team on the big moments of the campaign
- An overnight live blog with on-the-ground insight from the count
- Livestreams with our Editor, Content Editor and Political Reporters from the count, answering your questions well into the night
- The results broken down into key charts and graphs
- Post-result analysis from the likes of James Kelly and Professor John Curtice
- Behind-the-scenes insight from our Political Reporting team
This is a significant by-election, with the SNP hoping to prove a political comeback from last year's poor General Election result. Meanwhile Reform are hoping to show that they can gain ground in Scotland, somewhere Farage has traditionally struggled.
Whatever the results on Friday morning, there will be plenty to unpack.
If you don't want to miss out on any of that, make sure you're subscribed at thenational.scot, from just £1 for three months.
