The Scottish Green Party benefits from the fact that the Labour Party Government created a Scottish Parliament, which includes an element of proportional representation in addition to the seats elected by first-past-the-post. In the first election to this parliament, in 1999, the Scottish Green Party got one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) elected using the top-up proportional representation. On May 1, 2003 the Scottish Greens added six new MSP's to their previous total.
The Scottish Parliament is elected using the Additional Member System of proportional representation. Soon, local authorities in Scotland are to be elected using the Single Transferable Vote system of proportional representation.