Successor to Scotland's Prime Minister Sturgeon - candidates for SNP chief posts have been determined

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Possible Sturgeon successor: Treasury Secretary Kate Forbes

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Andrew Milligan/AP

Nicola Sturgeon is leaving - but who will follow her?

Scotland needs a new head of government soon after the 52-year-old surprisingly announced her resignation last week.

With her resignation as leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she wants to enable her party to break new ground in the future, said Sturgeon.

Now it is clear who could follow her in office.

As reported by the BBC, among others, three people had announced their candidacies by the end of the nomination period:

• Treasury Secretary Kate Forbes

• Health Minister Humza Yousaf

• Former Minister Ash Regan, Member of the Scottish Parliament since 2016

Voting starts on March 13th.

Two weeks later, on March 27th, the future "First Minister" of Scotland should be determined.

As the newspaper The Scotsman reports, citing a survey of around 1,000 SNP voters, Finance Minister Forbes is currently ahead in the race.

28 percent of those surveyed spoke out for them, 20 percent for Yousaf and eight percent for Regan.

Forbes recently came under criticism for statements about abortions

The 32-year-old Forbes recently came under pressure after she admitted that she was religiously opposed to gay marriage and that extramarital pregnancies were "wrong".

The SNP has been pursuing an emphatically liberal course for years and, under Sturgeon, campaigned particularly vehemently for Scotland's independence.

SNP MP Regan began her campaign by demanding that Sturgeon's husband, Peter Murrell, not be allowed to oversee the election.

There is a conflict of interest, said the 48-year-old.

As the SNP's chief executive, Murrell holds a central party office.

Regan is considered a rebel because she gave up her seat in the regional government in a dispute over a gender law.

Sturgeon had also cited personal reasons as a reason for her resignation.

"As time went on, I became less and less energetic for the job," says Sturgeon.

The political business has become more and more "brutal" over the years.

But she cannot do her job with less than 100 percent, she owes it to the country.

fek/dpa