Former Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond has launched of the Alba Party to fight  the 6 May Scottish Parliament elections.

Mr Salmond said he and other candidates will stand on the regional list in the election to try to deliver a “supermajority” in the Holyrood assembly for independence from the UK, maximising pressure on Boris Johnson for an IndyRef2 referendum.

But the SNP branded the initiative an act of “self-interest” by its former leader, and urged independence supporters to reject Mr Salmond’s call for “split-ticket” tactical voting and give both of their votes to Nicola Sturgeon’s party on 6 May.

The former first minister denied the party launch was a challenge to Ms Sturgeon, a former protegee with whom he has fought a bitter feud over her handling of sexual harassment claims against him, which he was cleared of in court.

Alba – named for the Scottish Gaelic term for Scotland – will not stand against SNP candidates in constituency seats, and will urge its supporters to vote for them, he said. But it aims to win additional pro-independence seats via the separate regional lists, where the SNP has little hope of success.

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“Today Alba are hoisting a flag in the wind, planting a Saltire on a hill,” said Mr Salmond. “In the next few weeks, we’ll see how many will rally to our standard.”

But an SNP spokesperson retorted: “This is perhaps the most predictable development in Scottish politics for quite some time.

“At this time of crisis, the interests of the country must come first and should not be obscured by the self interest of someone who shows no sign whatsoever of reflecting on serious concerns about his own conduct – concerns which, to put it mildly, raise real questions about the appropriateness of a return to public office.”

Mr Salmond said that the voting system in Scottish elections meant that votes for the SNP on the regional list will be “totally wasted”.

But he said that voting Alba instead could deliver a parliament at Holyrood with 90 or more of the 129 seats held by pro-independence MSPs.

Mr Salmond said that success for Alba would “recast” the independence debate from a battle between the SNP and Tories into a battle between prime minister Boris Johnson and the Scottish parliament and the Scottish people.

Under Section 30 of the Scotland Act, Edinburgh needs to obtain the UK prime minister’s permission to hold an independence referendum, something Mr Johnson has said he will not give.

The PM argues that the 2014 referendum, which produced a majority for continued membership of the UK, should be regarded as settling the issue for a generation.

Mr Salmond said that the creation of a “supermajority” of pro-independence MSPs at Holyrood would change the terms of the debate.

At the last election in 2016, almost 1 million SNP votes on the regional list delivered just four SNP MPs, and recent polls suggest Ms Sturgeon’s party may gain no regional seats at all from a similar vote in May, he said.

“If Alba fights the regional list seats, the wasted votes end,” he said. “The number of independence- supporting MSPs in the parliament could reach 90 or even more.”

And he added: “The initiative for independence should then be led by the parliament, uniting the parties.

“Boris Johnson has already said No to the SNP proposals. He will find it much more difficult to say No to a parliament and a country.

“And the independence debate will be recast, not as the Tories against the SNP, but as Boris Johnson against Scotland’s parliament representing Scotland’s people.”

Under the additional member system of voting used in Scottish parliamentary elections, voters have two ballots – one for a constituency MSP and one for a regional list.

Some 73 MSPs are elected for geographical constituencies on the first-past-the-post system, and a further 56 from eight regions.

Regional seats are allocated according to a proportional system which favours parties under-represented in the constituencies, in a way which makes it very difficult for a single party to gain an overall majority.

Mr Salmond calculates that if independence-supporting Scots were to vote SNP in their constituencies and Alba on the regional list, the total pro-independence voice at Holyrood could be massively increased from the SNP’s current 61 seats.

“The Alba Party is a list party, we are standing only in the list,” he said.

“We are not challenging the SNP in the constituencies. Indeed we are saying vote SNP or for an independence party on the constituency section.

“We are giving that support. Our campaign that we have launched is going to be entirely positive.”

Mr Salmond said the new party expects to field a minimum of four candidates in each regional list and hopes to elect MSPs from every area of Scotland.

He will himself be contesting the North East regional constituency, where he has previously represented the seats of Banff & Buchan and Gordon at Westminster and Aberdeenshire East at Holyrood.

Alba’s agenda will be driven by the aim to create a “successful, socially just, environmentally responsible, independent country”, he said.

But the SNP spokesperson said: “The SNP has led the country through the last 12 months of the Covid pandemic, and at this election we offer the experienced, responsible and forward-looking leadership that the country needs. 

“Our plans to get Scotland through and out of the Covid crisis, and support a recovery with fairness and equality at its heart, with the opportunity to put Scotland’s future in Scotland’s hands, will be the focus of our election campaign.

“The only way to secure strong leadership, a referendum on independence, and a positive future for the country is to cast both votes for the SNP on 6 May. “