Former lord provost Pat Lally is standing in the by-election

He is the latest candidate to put his name forward in the hope of succeeding Mike Watson as the local MSP.

Mr Lally left Labour two years ago and unsuccessfully tried to unseat Mr Watson at the last Holyrood elections.

Among those standing on the 29 September will be Lib Dem Arthur Sanderson, Labour's Charlie Gordon and Maire Whitehead for the SNP.

Mr Lally has the backing of the Scottish Senior Citizens' Party and described himself as an "alternative" to the other candidates who he said were "toadies" to party control.

'Fresh talent'

Mr Sanderson who was announced as the Lib Dem candidate on Monday, taught in Scotland prior to a career promoting educational programmes for the British Council throughout the world.

In this year's General Election in Glasgow South he came second.

The by-election was caused by Labour MSP Mike Watson's resignation after he admitted wilful fire-raising.

Lib Dem leader Nicol Stephen said: "Arthur Sanderson brings fresh talent and much-needed breadth of vision to this important Holyrood contest."

Former Glasgow City Council leader Charlie Gordon will fight the seat for Labour, while former local headteacher Maire Whitehead is the Scottish National Party candidate.

Two parliamentary by-elections are taking place in Scotland

The Scottish Socialist Party has named its candidate as Unison shop steward Ronnie Stevenson.

The Scottish Tories and Scottish Greens have yet to announce their candidates.

The Lib Dems have also launched their campaign for the Livingston by-election which was called following the death of Robin Cook.

Its candidate, Charles Dundas, claimed the party was the best placed to tackle Labour, saying the SNP vote was on the way down.

He promised a tough campaign focused on local issues.

The other candidates are Jim Devine for Labour, Angela Constance for the SNP, Gordon Lindhurst for the Conservatives, David Robertson for the Greens, Steve Nimmo for the Scottish Socialist Party and Peter Adams for UKIP.