What Is Target 59%?
Target 59% is a concept, a vision, recognising that Yes voters had the power to pack a knockout punch using the First Past The Post voting system against the No/Vow parties at the General Election on the 7th of May 2015.
The target was to send a band of 59 brothers and sisters to the Westminster Parliament, committed to gain the best for Scotland and to hold the No/Vow parties to account on Home Rule powers.
In the event 56 SNP MPs were elected, with close seconds achieved in the remaining three constituencies. Whatever number of constituencies Scotland retains after boundary reviews will remain the target.
The Scottish Parliament has 73 constituencies and these are also all winnable in the same First Past The Post voting system by backing a single pro-Independence candidate in each. The 56 Regional List seats are a complicated proposition for tactical Yes voting, although it appears that voting for one pro-independence party for the constituencies and voting for one other different pro-independence party would make 32 winnable. That's a target of 105 MSPs.
However, Independence remains the ultimate destination therefore an ambitious target of convincing at least 59% of Scottish voters that this would be in their best interests and those of the generations to come has been set. Yes voters have the power to win both General Elections within Scotland and the Scottish Parliament Elections the energy that achieves those results can convert at least 59% of people to Independence.