2007 Scottish local elections
3 May 2007 (2007-05-03)
All 1,222 seats to Scottish councils
Turnout52.8% (Increase3.2%)[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 Increase182 Decrease161
First preferences 585,885 590,085
First preferences (%) 27.9% 28.1%
Swing (pp) Increase3.8% Decrease4.5%
  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 Decrease9 Increase21
First preferences 266,693 327,591
First preferences (%) 12.7% 15.6%
Swing (pp) Decrease1.8% Increase0.5%
Council controls post elections
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.[2]

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.[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

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.[5][6]

Results

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 Increase20 — —
Labour 590,085 28.1 Decrease4.5% 2 Steady — 348 28.5% Decrease161
SNP 585,885 27.9 Increase3.8% 1 Steady — 363 29.7% Increase182
Conservative 327,591 15.6 Increase0.5% 2 Steady — 143 11.7% Increase21
Liberal Democrats 266,693 12.7 Decrease1.8% 0 Steady — 166 13.6% Decrease9
Independent 228,894 10.9 Increase0.8% 0 Steady — 192[lower-alpha 1] 15.7% Decrease38
Other 102,897 4.9 Increase1.3% 0 Steady — 10[lower-alpha 2] 0.8% Increase6
Total 2,099,945 100.0 ±0.0 32 Steady 1,222 1,222 1,222 100.00 Steady

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.[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[lower-alpha 3]) 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[lower-alpha 4]) 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[lower-alpha 5]) 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[lower-alpha 6]) 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[lower-alpha 7]) NOC Conservative (Con minority) Details
South Lanarkshire Labour Labour Labour (Lab minority) Details
Stirling Labour (Lab minority[lower-alpha 8]) 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

  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

  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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