The Scottish National Party will form Scotland's first ever majority government after a stunning election victory.
The party has reached 65 seats in the 129-seat parliament, with some counts still to declare, taking key seats in Labour heartlands.
The Liberal Democrat vote also collapsed, with the party returning four MSPs so far.
The SNP now has enough Holyrood votes to hold an independence referendum.
Labour leader Iain Gray congratulated his SNP rival, leader Alex Salmond, on his win.
Mr Salmond, whose party formed a minority government after the 2007 elections, described the unfolding Holyrood election results as "historic".
Prime Minister David Cameron also offered his congratulations to the SNP leader for an "emphatic win".
For an election campaign which may not go down as the most thrilling of all time, it is set to produce what may be a once-in-a-generation event.
One by one, supposed safe Labour seats fell to the SNP, while the Nationalists in turn consolidated their votes in their own areas.
With a few seats still to declare it has been a colossal result for the SNP, the party which won its first election in 2007 and could now, for the first time, hold an overall majority at Holyrood.
Rewind to the start of this mammoth, six-week campaign, and the outlook was very different.
Polls put Labour in the lead and, as the weeks progressed, that became level-pegging, until, towards the end, the SNP began to pull ahead.
Among its successes, the SNP won all 10 first-past-the-post seats in the north east and still managed to pick up an additional regional list seat after amassing more than 140,000 votes.
Labour big hitters, including finance spokesman Andy Kerr and former minister Tom McCabe, lost to the SNP in the party's West of Scotland heartland, while, in Glasgow, the SNP won the Anniesland seat with a majority of just seven votes.
Mr Gray said he had spoken to Mr Salmond early on Friday to congratulate him on his victory.
He continued: "Labour has lost many talented representatives, and it seems very likely that Labour's new and returning MSPs will play their part in the democratic process in the Scottish Parliament from opposition, but will do so with gusto. BBC -------- O nascimento da consciência nacional escocesa tem a sua origem no século IX, quando os Picts e os Scots se uniram, para formar o Reino da Escócia.
Dos movimentos nacionalistas que havia há 35 anos na Europa, como o bretão, o basco e o corso, o escocês era um dos mais efectivos e dava indícios de vir a ser o que mais provavelmente alcançaria os seus objectivos.
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