2007 Scottish local elections

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| <- 2003 | 3 May 2007 (2007-05-03) | 2012 ->

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|

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All 1,222 seats to Scottish councils
Turnout| 52.8% (3.2%)[1]
|  | First party  | Second party

|
|

Leader  | Alex Salmond | Jack McConnell
Party  | SNP | Labour
Leader since  | 3 September 2004  | 22 November 2001
Last election  | 181 seats, 24.1%  | 509 seats, 32.6%
Seats won  | 363 | 348
Seat change  | 182  | 161
First preferences | 585,885  | 590,085
First preferences (%) | 27.9%  | 28.1%
Swing (pp)  | 3.8%  | 4.5%

* * *

| Third party  | Fourth party

Leader  | Nicol Stephen | Annabel Goldie
Party  | Liberal Democrats | Conservative
Leader since  | 27 June 2005  | 31 October 2005
Last election  | 175 seats, 14.5%  | 122 seats, 15.1%
Seats won  | 166  | 143
Seat change  | 9  | 21
First preferences | 266,693  | 327,591
First preferences (%) | 12.7%  | 15.6%
Swing (pp)  | 1.8%  | 0.5%

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Popular vote by council areas.

Council controls post elections

Council controls post elections

* * *

Colours denote the party with the most seats

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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

[edit]

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, a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats.[2]

## eCounting fiasco

[edit]

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.[3][4]

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

[edit]

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 up over 180 new seats. The Scottish Greens elected their first-ever councillors, winning eight seats.[5][6]

## Results

[edit]

Colours denote the winning party with outright control Summary of the May 2007 Scottish council election results  Party  | First-preference votes  | Councils  | 2003 seats | 2007 seats

|
|
|
|

Count  | Of total (%)  | Change  | Count  | Change  | Count  | Of total (%)  | Count  | Of total (%)  | Change
| No overall control | —  | 27  | 20  | —  | —
| Labour | 590,085  | 28.1  | 4.5%  | 2  |  | —  | 348  | 28.5%  | 161
| SNP | 585,885  | 27.9  | 3.8%  | 1  |  | —  | 363  | 29.7%  | 182
| Conservative | 327,591  | 15.6  | 0.5%  | 2  |  | —  | 143  | 11.7%  | 21
| Liberal Democrats | 266,693  | 12.7  | 1.8%  | 0  |  | —  | 166  | 13.6%  | 9
| Independent | 228,894  | 10.9  | 0.8%  | 0  |  | —  | 192[a] | 15.7%  | 38
| Other  | 102,897  | 4.9  | 1.3%  | 0  |  | —  | 10[b] | 0.8%  | 6
Total  | 2,099,945  | 100.0  | ±0.0  | 32  |  | 1,222  | 1,222  | 1,222  | 100.00  |

## Councils

[edit]

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.[7]

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)  | Details
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[c])  | NOC  |  | No overall control (Con + LD)  | Details
Dundee City |  | No overall control (Lab + LD+ Con)  | NOC  |  | No overall control (Lab + LD+ Con)  | Details
East Ayrshire |  | Labour | Labour  |  | SNP (SNP minority)  | Details
East Dunbartonshire |  | Liberal Democrats (LD minority[d])  | 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[e])  | NOC  |  | No overall control (LD + SNP)  | Details
Falkirk |  | No overall control (SNP + Ind + Con)  | NOC  |  | No overall control (Lab + Ind + Con)  | Details
Fife |  | Labour (Lab minority[f])  | NOC  |  | No overall control (LD + SNP)  | Details
Glasgow City |  | Labour | Labour  |  | Labour | Details
Highland |  | Independent | Independent  |  | No overall control (Ind + SNP)  | Details
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[g])  | NOC  |  | Conservative (Con minority)  | Details
South Lanarkshire |  | Labour | Labour  |  | Labour (Lab minority)  | Details
Stirling |  | Labour (Lab minority[h])  | 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

[edit]

1. ^ 193 according to the BBC website
2. ^ 8 Scottish Greens, 1 Scottish Socialist and 1 Solidarity councillor. Separate vote figures not found
3. ^ Labour minority control. The council was previously run by a coalition of Scottish Liberal Democrats, Independents and the SNP.
4. ^ Liberal Democrats lack a majority (LD: 12 councillors; opposition: 12 councillors
5. ^ Labour lacked a majority after by-election loss to the SNP (Lab: 29 councillors; opposition: 29 councillors)
6. ^ Labour minority administration
7. ^ Conservative control, on a cut of the cards (Con: 15 councillors; opposition: 15 councillors)
8. ^ Labour lacked a majority after by-election loss to the SNP (Lab: 11 councillors; opposition: 11 councillors)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "SPICe Briefing: Local government elections 2012" (PDF). SPICe. 8 June 2012. p. 11.
2. ^ Clark, Alistair (28 March 2011). "STV in Scotland shows us that voters can adapt to preferential voting systems – but political parties may take longer to fully grasp the new system". London School of Economics. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
3. ^ Lock, Russell; Storer, Tim; Harvey, Natalie; Hughes, Conrad; Sommerville, Ian (2008). Kor, Ah‐Lian (ed.). "Observations of the Scottish elections 2007". Transforming Government: People, Process and Policy. 2 (2): 104–118\. doi:10.1108/17506160810876185. ISSN 1750-6166. S2CID 12455813. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
4. ^ Staff Reporter (13 September 2007). "DRS 'e-counts' tripled first half profits". Business Weekly. Retrieved 19 February 2023.
5. ^ "Scottish PR elections herald coalition politics". Public Finance. 10 May 2007.
6. ^ 2007 Scottish Local Elections
7. ^ "STV IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS: MODELLING THE 2003 RESULT" (PDF). 3 June 2005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 11 September 2008. Retrieved 6 June 2016.

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