Scotland goes to the polls on May 5 to decide who will form the next Scottish Government.

It is the first Holyrood vote since the country rejected independence in 2014 and swept away Labour in an SNP landslide in the 2015 general election.

It will also be Nicola Sturgeon's first opportunity to seek the endorsement of the Scottish people to lead the devolved executive. Sturgeon was elevated to the first ministership when she succeeded Alex Salmond as SNP leader two months after his failed independence bid.

Opinion polls give Sturgeon and the Nationalists an almost insurmountable lead while Labour, in Scotland and across the UK, continues a seemingly long-term decline.

This poses an opportunity for the Scottish Conservatives to achieve a much-promised, never-delivered comeback and for left-wing parties to challenge the centre-ground consensus.

As 100 days of campaigning is marked on Monday, ten questions remain to be answered about the future of Scottish politics.

It's easy to forget that, for all her opponent-crushing popularity, the First Minister does not enjoy a mandate from the voters. May is her chance to put herself before the public and sketch a blueprint for the kind of Scotland she wants to achieve. This is no small feat. With independence off the table for the near future, what is the purpose and vision of the SNP? There has to be something more inspiring than the formula of one part technocracy, two parts grievance. It is up to Nicola Sturgeon to decide what kind of government she wants to lead and what kind of First Minister she wants to be.

Holyrood's electoral system was designed to prevent any one party from holding the reins of power. The SNP made mincemeat of that in 2011, when it took 69 of the parliament's 129 seats. That meant no messy coalition negotiations and an executive largely unchecked in its actions. Whether the Nats retain control of the Scottish Parliament or, as seems likely, increase their majority, depends on whether they can convince enough electors to lend them both their votes. If they can, Nicola Sturgeon will have a mandate to push through her agenda (whatever that ends up being).

What that means for the country is a separate matter. Another majority SNP government at Holyrood would be unfettered by a revising chamber while handpicked committee chairs and supine backbenchers can often sound more like cheerleaders than independent-minded MSPs. With the SNP likely to win a similar landslide in 2017's local authority elections, Scotland would find itself in waters largely uncharted in post-war Western Europe: An elective one-party state.

That this is even a credible question speaks volumes of the upheaval in Scottish politics in recent years. The Conservatives haven't got any more popular, despite a firecracker of a leader in Ruth Davidson, but the collapse of Scottish Labour provides them with a slender window of opportunity. A centrist social and economic message combined with an appeal to moderate Labour voters (such as remain) might bring advances. But on just 15 seats, the party has a steep climb on its hands and the millstone of Scottish Toryphobia around its neck. And if Davidson cannot revive the Tories' fortunes north of the border in May, it might be time to shove the old banger into the scrap yard and invest in a new model.

The Lothian MSP might be the most luckless Scottish politician not to have "denies all wrongdoing" habitually recited after her name. For Dugdale's lot is far graver than that of MPs suspended from the SNP pending investigations; she is the leader of the Scottish Labour Party. Dugdale's time in politics has coincided with the implosion of Labour on both sides of the border, under pressure from Scottish and English nationalism. At Holyrood, she is pitted against the most formidable leader in the history of the SNP and must avoid being overshadowed by a confident and energetic Tory boss.

Dugdale's early performances at First Minister's Questions held out the promise that she could call the Nats to heel over scandals, missed targets and broken promises. Since then, the record has been patchier and the 34-year-old has struggled for airtime with broadcasters focusing on the increasingly comical machinations of the new, far-left dominated Labour Party down south.

Can she recapture the passion showed in the final weeks of the referendum and use her solid grasp of policy debates to wrong-foot the SNP?

The Scottish Greens have a bounce in their step. A post-referendum membership surge has boosted their ranks and co-leader Patrick Harvie continues to enjoy a measure of popularity. The polls suggest they could quadruple their current haul of two seats but if they can win enough second votes from SNP supporters, there is nothing to stop them breaking into double figures. In those circumstances, fourth or even third place could beckon, an astonishing achievement and one that would herald major chances in Scotland's political and economic debates.

Problems set in for Scottish Labour, it is often said, when devolution arrived and they continued to send their best and brightest to Westminster. A similar challenge appears to have struck the SNP, which now boasts a strong (if uneven) parliamentary group in the Commons but a more modest body of talent at Holyrood. Beyond Nicola Sturgeon, John Swinney and a few others (Humza Yousaf, Roseanna Cunningham), political stars and veterans are thin on the ground. Will the 2016 intake rejuvenate the ranks? Many of the candidates have yet to be tested but the inclusion of respected activists like Toni Giugliano and Jeane Freeman gives grounds for optimism.

All of the main parties are trumpeting their education credentials. It's a top priority for parents and the opposition parties are confident they can land a few blows on the SNP's record.

Take your pick. The public expenditure cuts which lie along the road ahead are likely to come up. The council tax freeze, which critics claim is underfunded and socially regressive, will make a fair few appearances. Expect lots of pontificating from the opposition but very few alternatives offered. Labour has made life difficult for the Scottish Government over missed accident and emergency waiting targets in the last few months. Can they translate this into votes from electors concerned about the future of the NHS in Nationalist hands?

Then there's the elephant in the room: Independence. Nicola Sturgeon will want to avoid talking about it at all costs. Her activists will cheer and holler at the mere hint of it. Ruth Davidson will bring it up constantly, offering her party as the only bulwark against separatism. (Tory supporters will have a similar reaction to any mention of the Union.) Labour will plead with the public to move on from the referendum while praying they haven't moved on from Labour too.

STV's Alastair Brian warns that the new left-wing alliance can only hope to make headway if it turns its guns on the tribulations and triangulations of the Scottish Government. Far-left parties have achieved some progress in previous Scottish Parliament elections, with the Scottish Socialist Party taking six seats in 2003's "rainbow parliament". Can RISE replicate their success?

The political blogger Aidan Kerr calls it "Ulsterisation", the process whereby traditional polarisations of right and left are replaced by a new axis of nationalism versus unionism. With the SNP riding high as a non-ideological centrist force built around the defence of the nation's interests, and the Tories pitching themselves as the Unionist alternative, it would seem that national identity is here to stay in Scottish politics. Are you Scottish or British? Yes or No? One of us or one of them? At least no one can accuse the New Scotland of being dull.

< p>Analysis by Stephen Daisley, STV's digital political correspondent. You can contact him at stephen.daisley@stv.tv.