LABOUR stalwart Jackie Baillie has bucked her party's national downward spiral by holding the Dumbarton constituency seat.

She triumphed over the SNP's Gail Robertson by 109 votes.

Ms Baillie has reigned in the region for 16 years, since the formation of the Scottish Parliament.

Following the announcement of her win, Ms Baillie said: "The people of Dumbarton, Vale of Leven, Helensburgh and Lomond have continued to put their faith in me and I will repay it without fear or favour.

"Across Scotland it has been a disappointing night for the party, there are one or two beacons of light there, but I will work extremely hard for this constituency to ensure they get the best possible representation."

Ms Baillie earned 13,522 votes whilst Ms Robertson won 13,413.

Ms Robertson said: "Very narrow and I think we ran a really, really good campaign, I'm really proud of my team.

"While they will be very disappointed, I'm sure they should all be very proud of everything they achieved.

"It's the closest we've seen in this constituency, we can take that away from tonight and see where we go from here."

Maurice Corry, of the Scottish Conservatives, won 4,891.

Aileen Morton, of the LibDems, won 1,131, whilst Andrew Muir, Independent won 641.

A total of 33,698 ballots were cast, and there was a turnout of 61 per cent.

The result was announced at 4.45am in the Play Drome, in Clydebank, where the election count was held.

Earlier in the evening, Ms Baillie said it had been "a hard-fought campaign".

She added: "It was a privilege representing people, fantastic people, and at the end of the day whatever they decide is what they decide and I'm supportive of that."

Joyce White returning officer announced earlier in the evening that there was a voter turnout of 61 per cent which is an increase of nine per cent since the 2011 elections.

Ms Baillie has held the seat since the formation of the Scottish Parliament in 1999.

The May 5 result is a far cry from last year's Westminster General Election in which Labour's Gemma Doyle was defeated in a landslide victory by SNP MP Martin Docherty-Hughes.

In the same election Argyll and Bute's MP Brendan O'Hara ended a 14 year term of former Liberal Democrat MP Alan Reid.

Nationally the SNP are on track to fulfil a landslide victory, which had been widely predicted.