turn down an offer to serve in her government if she changed the party's social policy positions towards a more conservative stance. In 2014, Yousaf was absent for the final vote on the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014, citing a ministerial engagement regarding a Scottish prisoner facing capital punishment for blasphemy in Pakistan. He voted for the bill in earlier stages and vocally supported it throughout. The former MSP Alex Neil, who introduced the act, said that Yousaf had deliberately scheduled the meeting to avoid the vote, with permission from Salmond, "because he was put under pressure by the leaders of the mosque in Glasgow". Yousaf said that he consulted his community and "the Muslim community in particular" about many of his positions, and that there were Muslims who had different views on same-sex marriage. He said he did "not remember any conversation with Alex Salmond about the equal marriage vote". Whilst a practicing Muslim, Yousaf said that he does not "legislate on the basis of [his] faith". Election process The SNP constitution states that candidates must have the nomination of at least 100 members, from at least 20 branches. Every SNP member who was in the party as of 15 February 2023 will be eligible to vote. The election will take place on a one member, one vote basis, using a type of single transferable vote. The SNP had 103,884 members as of December 2021. On 16 February 2023, the party's national executive committee announced the timetable of the election. Nominations opened on 16 February, and closed on 24 February. The three nominated candidates will then be put forward as options in a ballot of party members, which will open on 13 March, and close at noon on 27 March, with the result announced on the same day by the SNP's national secretary, Lorna Finn. Candidates were given a spending limit of £5,000 and a limit on accepting individual donations of £50, and prohibiting donations from anybody not eligible to vote in the election. The Times columnist Alex Massie wrote that the short timetable would give an advantage to established candidates. Supporters of Forbes, who was on maternity leave before announcing her candidacy, said that the timeline disadvantaged her. The SNP gave approval for candidates to take part in live televised debates. However, the SNP were criticised for banning journalists from the planned hustings, a move that