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With only a day to go before the new crop of MSPs are supposed to elect a Presiding Officer at Holyrood to succeed George Reid, a strong candidate for the post has yet to emerge.

The strongest likelihood is that Mr Reid will suspend proceedings after swearing in MSPs tomorrow to give more time for the tight parliamentary arithmetic to resolve itself.

As reported in The Herald yesterday, the Tories would find it easiest to sacrifice a vote but leader Annabel Goldie has insisted she "wants all her players on the park" during the next term.

Alex Fergusson, the Conservative who held on to Galloway and Upper Nithsdale, was being strongly tipped yesterday to the point that he joined Ms Goldie and former Tory leader David McLetchie in ruling himself out. Veteran Glasgow MSP Bill Aitken did not rule himself out at this stage.

As a former magistrate he would be a strong figure in the chair, but may be seen as too much of a political fixer .

Another member who has expressed an interest is the Lothian Independent MSP Margo MacDonald but she would have problems setting aside her strong views on issues to take the chair.

Labour, with only one seat less than the SNP in the chamber, could be reluctant to sacrifice a crucial vote by offering a candidate, which is why a suspension of tomorrow's meeting until next week may allow a way to be found out of the impasse.

12:49am Tuesday 8th May 2007

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