Scottish Greens chiefs Patrick Harvie and Lorna Slater have successfully fended off a threat to their leadership.
The two Holyrood ministers – who took their party into a power-sharing agreement with the SNP – were backed to continue by 65% of those who voted.
We exclusively revealed in August some party activists wanted to introduce new rules which would bar Greens in government from holding the party leadership.
Mr Harvie and Ms Slater were given posts in Nicola Sturgeon’s administration last August after striking a deal with her party.
But a party source said some Green activists felt the party’s leaders had been “silenced” over key issues such as rent freeze proposals due to working with the SNP.
The activist had said: “We scrapped our support for an energy company in Scotland and now our voice seems to have gone pretty silent on that issue.
“I think there is a general concern that we aren’t talking about the cost-of-living crisis anywhere near as vociferously as we could be if our leaders were perhaps not ministers.”
However, only 26% of members who voted for the proposals backed permanently separating the party leadership from government posts.
The Scottish Greens said the result showed Mr Harvie and Ms Slater had strong backing from the party’s membership.
‘Clear endorsement’
A spokesperson said: “The result of the vote is a clear endorsement of the current leadership and arrangements in place.
“The Scottish Greens family and vision for independence has never been stronger.”
Had the proposals passed, Mr Harvie and Ms Slater would have been forced to stand down by their party’s next general meeting.
They would have also been barred from holding any “major officer position” while they remained in their ministerial roles.
A vote on their future was originally to be held during the Green conference in Dundee last month, but it was delayed due to technical issues.
SNP-Green tensions
The power-sharing deal between the SNP and Greens means the two parties are bound to agree on some policy areas, while being free to diverge on others.
Since the two pro-independence parties are not in a formal coalition, areas of disagreement remain.
North East party MSP Maggie Chapman has been heavily critical of SNP-backed plans to introduce two new freeports in Scotland.