Some of the key players in the election

Alex Salmond, leader of the Scottish Nationalist Party

Born in Linlithgow on 31 December 1954, Salmond worked as an economist for the Royal Bank of Scotland before being first elected as MP for Banff and Buchan in the 1987 General Election. In 1992, he more than doubled his majority.

Further success was to follow. In the 1997 election, Salmond more than trebled his majority, which at 12,845 is the highest ever achieved by an SNP MP. At the 2001 election, he again had a five-figure majority.

He was elected leader of the SNP in 1990, since when the SNP has emerged as the second party in Scotland, winning just under 30% of the vote and 35 MSPs in the first Scottish Parliament in the election of 1999.

Serving as leader of the opposition and shadow first minister in the Scots Parliament, Salmond stood down as party leader in September 2000 with his party on an historic high in the opinion polls.

Although he quit the Scottish Parliament in 2001, he remained an MP at Westminster, and, after the leadership contest of 2004, returned as SNP leader with 75% of the vote.

Ieuan Wyn Jones, leader of Plaid Cymru

Elected MP for Ynys Mon in 1987. Born in 1949, he was educated at Liverpool Polytechnic and is a solicitor.

He is a former Chairman of Plaid Cymru and has previously served on the select committees on agriculture and Welsh affairs. He was the leader of Plaid Cymru - the Party of Wales from 2000 to 2003. He is the Leader of the Plaid Cymru Group in the National Assembly.

Last year Mr Jones dramatically announced that he was standing down as Plaid president on May 8, a week after disappointing election results that saw the party's number of seats reduced from 17 to 12. But seven weeks later, he declared himself available to lead the group again at the Assembly.