A lack of money, the inability to attract politically minded people and a lack of exposure are all issues smaller political parties face in the race to get to Holyrood.
The five big parties – the SNP, Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrats and the Greens – dominate the campaign trail ahead of next month’s election, and they are likely to take the majority, if not all, of the votes.
But there are dozens of other smaller parties out there vying for votes – on Election Hub Live today we were joined by Jane Smith from the Animal Welfare Party, Suzi Martin from the Women’s Equality Party and Bryce Hope from the Scottish Libertarian Party to talk about some of the issues they face.
‘A lot of challenges’
Jane Smith from the Animal Welfare Party said one of the biggest challenges they face is getting the money needed to stage an election campaign.
She said: “We are fielding two candidates and they are absolutely fantastic.
“We are a small party so we have to choose very carefully where we stand.
“We would love to field more candidates but there are a lot of challenges when you are a small party.
“We would be really pleased if people looked us up online because we can’t afford to spend on things like election leaflets everywhere that some of the bigger parties can.”
Suzi Martin from the Women’s Equality Party also said finances are a struggle for parties like hers.
She said: “Finances is one of the biggest barriers for small political parties.
“We are raising funds through a crowdfunder campaign (because) the Women’s Equality Party is running in four different elections across the UK.
“We have funding centrally to run in the Holyrood election, but primarily it is from crowdfunding.
“Our target is £3,000 for deposits to stand two list candidates and to run a limited but effective leaflet campaign, and some extras like speaker fees and the costs associated with being a candidate.
“Expense is a barrier, but it doesn’t stop us being effective or getting out there campaigning and getting across our message that gender equality is better for everyone.”
Online campaigning
Bryce Hope, who is standing in the North East list for the Scottish Libertarian Party, said it was difficult for smaller parties to try to compete with the big five in Scotland, and said he is doing a lot of his campaigning online.
He said: “Our party is widespread and we have a lot of supporters online, many of them from all walks of life.
“The biggest challenge for us during this election is, although we get donations from our members, we are facing parties that have massive and bureaucratic machines behind them, and armies of people.
“People who are politically minded and who want to be out there and active have already been sucked up by those parties even if they don’t necessarily suit being in them.
“For me, I have suggested to the party we ignore the mainstream who seem enamoured by the bigger parties.
“They seem to love the SNP and the Conservatives down south, which is odd.
“I say, go online, the internet is the new media and anyone can create content now, it is the most democratic thing.”
During today’s Election Hub Live the parties also spoke about the potential for collaboration in a bid to take on the larger parties more successfully.
Ms Martin said: “We are all about other political parties stealing our policies.
“We want to share our work and we want to see the five main parties adopt our policies.
“We will be delivering copies of our manifesto to each party HQ so they can steal our policies.
“I think collaborative politics is the way forward.”
‘Total sense to work with other parties’
Ms Smith added: “The Animal Welfare Party at heart is a testimonial party.
“We would love for a lot of our policies to become mainstream.
“The ideal would be for us to become redundant as a party because our policies are adopted more widely but, for us, we are the only party campaigning for some of our policies.
“It makes total sense to work with other parties.”
Election Hub Live streams at 2pm every weekday afternoon on our websites and social media channels, providing everything you need to know about the race for Holyrood.