2007 Scottish local elections
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All 1,222 seats to Scottish councils | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Turnout | 52.8% (![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Colours denote the winning party with outright control | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Colours denote the party with the most seats | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() Colours denote the party with largest share of first preference votes by ward |
The 2007 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and local elections in parts of England. All 32 Scottish councils had all their seats up for election – all Scottish councils are unitary authorities.
Background[]
This was the first election for local government in Great Britain to use the Single Transferable Vote (the system is used in Northern Ireland), as implemented by the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004. The new electoral system resulted in most councils being under no overall control.
eCounting fiasco[]
Scanners supplied by DRS Data Services Limited of Milton Keynes, in partnership with Electoral Reform Services (ERS), the trading arm of the Electoral Reform Society, were used to electronically count the paper ballots in both the Scottish council elections and the Scottish Parliament general election.[2][3]
Because of the fiasco in 2007 of holding parliamentary (Holyrood) and local elections simultaneously, the following Scottish local elections were held in 2012 instead of 2011.
Party performance[]
The Labour party lost control of all but two of its councils, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, but received the largest number of votes, while the SNP were the main beneficiaries of the new voting system, picking over 180 new seats. The Scottish Greens elected their first-ever councillors, winning eight seats.
Results[]
Parties | First-Preference Votes[5] |
Votes % | +/- | Councillors | Net Gain/Loss | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 590,085 | 28.1 | −4.5% | 348 | −161 | |
SNP | 585,885 | 27.9 | +3.8% | 363 | +182 | |
Conservative | 327,591 | 15.6 | +0.5% | 143 | +21 | |
Liberal Democrats | 266,693 | 12.7 | −1.8% | 166 | −9 | |
Independent | 228,894 | 10.9 | +0.8% | 192 | −38 | |
Other | 102,897 | 4.9 | +1.3% | 10[6] | +6 | |
Total | 2,099,945 | 1,222 |
Party | Councils - majority | Councils - in coalition/minority | Councillors | |
SNP | 0 | 11 | 363 | |
Labour | 2 | 11 | 348 | |
Liberal Democrats | 0 | 12 | 166 | |
Conservative | 0 | 8 | 143 | |
Green | 0 | 0 | 8 | |
Scottish Socialist | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Solidarity | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
Other | 3 | 9 | 192[7] | |
No overall control | 27 | - | - |
Councils[]
The notional results in the following table are based on a document that John Curtice and Stephen Herbert (Professors at the University of Strathclyde) produced on 3 June 2005, calculating the effect of the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote on the 2003 Scottish Local Elections.[8]
Council | 2003 result | Notional control (based on 2003 results) |
2007 result | Details | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Aberdeen City | No overall control (LD + Con) | NOC | No overall control (LD + SNP) | |||
Aberdeenshire | No overall control (LD + Ind) | NOC | No overall control (LD + Con) | Details | ||
Angus | SNP | NOC | No overall control (Ind + Con + LD + Lab) | Details | ||
Argyll and Bute | Independent | Independent | No overall control (Ind + SNP) | Details | ||
Clackmannanshire | Labour | NOC | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | ||
Dumfries and Galloway | Labour (Lab minority[9]) | NOC | No overall control (Con + LD) | Details | ||
Dundee City | No overall control (Lab + LD+ Con) | NOC | No overall control (Lab + LD+ Con) | |||
East Ayrshire | Labour | Labour | SNP (SNP minority) | Details | ||
East Dunbartonshire | Liberal Democrats (LD minority[10]) | NOC | No overall control (Lab + Con) | Details | ||
East Lothian | Labour | NOC | No overall control (SNP + LD) | Details | ||
East Renfrewshire | No overall control (Lab + LD) | NOC | No overall control (Lab + LD + Ind + Con) | Details | ||
City of Edinburgh | Labour (Lab minority[11]) | NOC | No overall control (LD + SNP) | |||
Falkirk | No overall control (SNP + Ind + Con) | NOC | No overall control (Lab + Ind + Con) | Details | ||
Fife | Labour (Lab minority[12]) | NOC | No overall control (LD + SNP) | Details | ||
Glasgow City | Labour | Labour | Labour | Details | ||
Highland | Independent | Independent | No overall control (Ind + SNP) | |||
Inverclyde | Liberal Democrats | NOC | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | ||
Midlothian | Labour | NOC | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | ||
Moray | Independent | Independent | No overall control (Ind + Con) | Details | ||
Na h-Eileanan Siar | Independent | Independent | Independent | Details | ||
North Ayrshire | Labour | Labour | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | ||
North Lanarkshire | Labour | Labour | Labour | Details | ||
Orkney | Independent | Independent | Independent | Details | ||
Perth and Kinross | No overall control (SNP + LD + Ind) | NOC | No overall control (SNP + LD) | Details | ||
Renfrewshire | Labour | NOC | No overall control (SNP + LD) | Details | ||
Scottish Borders | No overall control (Ind + Con) | NOC | No overall control (Ind + Con + LD) | Details | ||
Shetland | Independent | Independent | Independent | Details | ||
South Ayrshire | Conservative (Con minority[13]) | NOC | Conservative (Con minority) | Details | ||
South Lanarkshire | Labour | Labour | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | ||
Stirling | Labour (Lab minority[14]) | NOC | Labour (Lab minority) | Details | ||
West Dunbartonshire | Labour | Labour | No overall control (SNP + Ind) | Details | ||
West Lothian | Labour | NOC | No overall control (SNP + Ind) | Details |
Notes and references[]
- ^ p. 11
- ^ "Electronic counting to take over from tellers at elections", The Scotsman, 19 April 2006
- ^ "Green light for DRS & ERS to deliver e-Count for 2007 Scottish Elections", press release, DRS Data Services Limited
- ^ Figures from the Electoral Commission's Scottish Parliamentary and local elections 2007 statutory report
- ^ Votes for parties are back-calculated from percentages and the total vote, so are subject to rounding error
- ^ 8 Scottish Greens, 1 Scottish Socialist and 1 Solidarity councillor. Separate vote figures not found
- ^ 193 according to the BBC website
- ^ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 6 February 2016.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ Labour minority control. The council was previously run by a coalition of Scottish Liberal Democrats, Independents and the SNP.
- ^ Liberal Democrats lack a majority (LD: 12 councillors; opposition: 12 councillors)
- ^ Labour lack a majority, after by election loss to Scottish National Party (Lab: 29 councillors; opposition: 29 councillors)
- ^ Labour minority administration
- ^ Conservative and Unionist control, on a cut of the cards (Con: 15 councillors; opposition: 15 councillors)
- ^ Labour lack a majority, after by election loss to Scottish National Party (Lab: 11 councillors; opposition: 11 councillors)
- 2007 Scottish local elections
- Council elections in Scotland
- 2007 in Scotland
- May 2007 events in the United Kingdom