Nicole Mouat and Emily Shaw chosen as young Shetland parliamentarians

Young Shetlanders have chosen Nicole Mouat and Emily Shaw to represent them in the Scottish Youth Parliament.

Returning candidate Nicole, 18, who was recently named Scotland’s top up and coming young politician, said it was “amazing” to get the chance to represent the isles’ young people for a second time, while Emily, 17, from Lerwick, said she was “absolutely honoured” to have been elected.

After a welcome and introduction from youth services official Martin Summers, returning officer Jan Riise announced the results at the Town Hall this afternoon.

Before making the announcement, Mr Riise commended the candidates, saying “it takes a great deal of courage and a good degree of self-belief to put yourself forward”.

In her acceptance speech, Miss Mouat said: “It’s amazing to have been re-elected, it shows the young people in Shetland are happy with what’s being done.”

She thanked all the candidates and said she “couldn’t wait” for the next two years to continue the work that is currently being done.

Miss Shaw said: “I knew it would be close, any of the candidates could have been elected, so I didn’t prepare an acceptance speech!

“It’s going to be an amazing couple of years and I’m going to try my best to represent all the young people of Shetland.”

She said she and Miss Mouat would continue to champion local causes and would look to the issues which had been raised at the community planning partnership (CPP) summit in September.

Miss Shaw said: “We’re trying to focus on issues that came up as part of the CPP summit and one of those was the Save Shetland Coastguard campaign, so that’s what we’ll continue to focus on in the next few months.”

Speaking after the results, Mr Summers said: “The elections have gone really well, I’d like to say congratulations to all the candidates. It’s been a great journey for them and they’ve all done a sterling job.”

Some 626 votes online votes were registered by young people aged between 12 and 25.