Membership of the Scottish National Party in Moray has quadrupled since the Scottish independence referendum in September.
The party is now boasting 1500 members in the region – with many of them turning out at a packed meeting this week where candidates for the deputy leadership of the party sought to attract support.
Around 10% of the total membership turned out at the Eight Acres Hotel to hear from all three candidates, Keith Brown, Angela Constance and Stewart Hosie.
Speaking after the event Moray SNP Constituency Association’s Convener Councillor Gary Coull said: “The hustings event was fantastic and I was particularly delighted to see so many of our new members coming along to hear the three candidates present their case to be Deputy Leader of the party.
“Each of three candidates gave excellent speeches and we had well over an hour of questions after that from the members.
“In Keith, Angela and Stewart we have three really excellent candidates for the Deputy Leader post and that was obvious from quality of the speeches and the comprehensive question and answer session.
“It is fair to say that our members have a difficult choice to pick the best from great set of candidates!”
Attending the hustings was Moray’s MP, Angus Robertson, who earlier this week expressed his support for his Westminster colleague Stewart Hosie.
Mr Robertson said: “It was great to welcome so many of our new members to an exciting hustings event and give them a feel for how the SNP works as a political party and how democratic we are in elections for our leadership positions.
“All three candidates set their stalls out very well and there was a great range of questions from the audience.
“Everyone I spoke to who attended the hustings said it was excellent and their choice was very difficult given how good all the candidates are.
“The referendum has completely re-energised politics in Moray, as it has across Scotland and especially for the SNP with so many people turning to us in the wake of the referendum.”