Nicola Sturgeon has urged SNP supporters against taking victory for granted and giving their regional vote to another party.
Despite polls suggesting her party is on track for another majority in the Scottish Parliament, she insisted she has “never taken anything for granted” during the election campaign.
As well as urging supporters to make sure they cast their vote on Thursday, the SNP leader also warned them against giving their second vote in the ballot to another party.
Other pro-independence parties, such as the Scottish Greens and the left-wing alliance Rise, have been urging nationalists to back them in the regional section of the vote in a bid to maximise the number of pro-independence MSPs returned to Holyrood.
Ms Sturgeon said: “If you want to see an SNP government re-elected with me as first minister, then do not assume somebody else will go out and deliver that for you, do not think you can take a chance with one of your votes.
“If you want to see the SNP elected there is only one way to ensure, to guarantee, that that happens tomorrow, and that is to go to your local polling station and vote SNP with both of your votes.”
She spoke out as she addressed an eve-of-poll rally in Glasgow city centre which was briefly disrupted by a man waving a union jack flag in front of the SNP leader.
As he was led away, she thanked him for “turning up here to show what a democratic country we are” before making a personal pitch to the hundreds of people gathered in Buchanan Street.
This is the first election in which Ms Sturgeon has directly appealed to Scots to elect her as first minister.
With the party having introduced some controversial legislation, such as the named person scheme and new laws to crack down on sectarian behaviour at football matches, she said: “I know there will be people in every part of Scotland, even those who vote SNP, who do not agree with every thing I say or do, or who do not agree with everything the SNP says or does.
“But tomorrow I hope to encourage this country to come together to elect a government that has Scotland’s interests at heart at all times, a government that will put the interests of this country first, last and always.
“In asking you to elect me as the First Minister, I pledge to you today my determination each and every day to lead this country with confidence, with optimism, with imagination, with ambition. ”
With Holyrood getting new tax and welfare powers from April 2017 she said the election on Thursday “is a big day for Scotland”.
She said she had “confidence people in Scotland will choose to keep moving forward with the SNP”.
The First Minister told the crowd: “Tomorrow I am asking people across this country of ours to elect the SNP to an historic third term in government, and with great humility I am asking people across our country to elect me to be the first minister who will lead our country for the next five years and into a new decade.”
Afterwards, she said: “I’m asking people to re-elect an SNP government with me as first minister so we can invest record sums in our health service, double childcare, improve education, support our small businesses and our entrepreneurs, and have a government that always stand up for Scotland and is stronger for Scotland.”
