Scottish local elections, 2012

Scottish local elections, 2012

3 May 2012

All 1,223 seats to 32 Scottish councils Turnout 39.6% (13.2%)[1]   First party Second party   Leader Alex Salmond Johann Lamont Party SNP Labour Leader since 3 September 2004 17 December 2011 Last election 363 seats, 27.9% 348 seats, 28.1% Seats won 425 394 Seat change 62 46 First preferences 503,233 488,703 First preferences (%) 32.33 31.39 Swing (pp) 4.48 3.26   Third party Fourth party   Leader Ruth Davidson Willie Rennie Party Conservative Liberal Democrats Leader since 4 November 2011 17 May 2011 Last election 143 seats, 15.6% 166 seats, 12.7% Seats won 115 71 Seat change 28 95 First preferences 206,599 103,087 First preferences (%) 13.27 6.62 Swing (pp) 2.35 6.05

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 2012 Scottish local elections, were held on 3 May, in all 32 local authorities. The Scottish National Party (SNP) overtook Labour to win the highest share of the vote, and retained and strengthened its position as the party with most councillors. Labour also made gains, while the Liberal Democrats experienced meltdown, falling behind the Conservatives. For the first time since the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote system, the SNP won majority control of 2 councils, from no overall control. Labour also won majority control of 2 councils from no overall control, while retaining majority control over 2 councils.

Independent councillors retained majority control over the 3 island councils. The 23 other councils remained under no overall control.

Background

The election was due to be held on 5 May 2011, but Scottish Ministers heeded the advice of the Gould Report and split the Holyrood and local elections - in order to avoid a repeat of the 2007 fiasco. These local elections were the second since the Single Transferable Vote (STV) was first introduced for the 2007 local government elections. This election was the first since the SNP won a majority in the Scottish Parliament. They were also the first local elections in Scotland since 1995 not to take place at the same time as a Scottish parliamentary election.

New eCounting system

In October 2010 a new company - Logica was awarded the contract for the vote counting system for the 2012 council elections, and since January 2011 testing has been under way to sort out many issues. On the 5 August 2011, A Dummy election was set up in Perth to test out new "eCounting" system, as part of robust test, in which 160,000 ballot papers run through the machine. This forms third stage of rigorous testing of the system in partition of these elections.^[2]

Party performance

Both the SNP and Labour performed well, increasing both share of the vote and their numbers of councillors. The SNP gained control of two councils from No Overall Control: Angus and Dundee. Labour gained majority control over two councils, Renfrewshire and West Dunbartonshire, also from No Overall Control, and held on to their overall majority in both Glasgow and North Lanarkshire councils. The Conservative & Unionist Party lost significant ground, but did gain a seat in Argyll & Bute and managed to come third.

The Liberal Democrats continued to experience a political meltdown following on from the previous year's Scottish elections, losing 57% of their councillors. In one Edinburgh ward, Pentland Hills, Mike 'Professor Pongoo' Ferrigan who intended to dressed as a penguin to council meetings received 444 first-preference votes, 74 more than the Liberal Democrat candidate, Stuart Bridges, and 122 more than the Green Party candidate.^[3] In Edinburgh, where the Liberal Democrats had previously been in a ruling coalition with the SNP, they lost 13 of their 16 seats. In the Fife Council ward of 'Buckhaven, Methil and Wemyss Villages', the party's candidate, Lois Lothian, received just 21 votes.

The Scottish Greens boosted their councillor numbers from 8 to 14, including doubling their representation in Edinburgh (where they topped the poll in two wards for the first time) and electing councillors for the first time to Stirling, Midlothian and Aberdeenshire local authorities (note: Cllr Martin Ford, re-elected in 2012 as a Green, won in 2007 as a Liberal Democrat).

The Scottish Socialist Party held its sole seat, that of Jim Bollan in West Dunbartonshire. Meanwhile, the UK Independence Party lost its sole councillor in Scotland on Fife Council. Independent councillors retained majority control over the three island councils (Na h-Eileanan Siar, Orkney and Shetland).

Aftermath

Talks took place to decide who would control of the 23 remaining councils ^[4] This resulted in Labour taking control of Fife, East and West Lothian, Inverclyde and South Lanarkshire and forming a grand coalition with the SNP in the City of Edinburgh and an anti-Conservative alliance in East Renfrewshire.

The SNP took control of Clackmannanshire, North Ayrshire and Perth and Kinross and became the largest party in controlling coalitions in Argyll and Bute, Highland, Midlothian, Scottish Borders and East Ayrshire. They also joined the Scottish Conservatives in a coalition arrangement in Dumfries and Galloway.

Results

Results to follow:

 Summary of the 3 May 2012 Scottish council election results^[5]

Party		First-preference votes			Seats won
		#	%	Swing (pp)	#	Net Gain	%
	Scottish National Party	503,233	32.33	+4.48	425	+62	34.75
	Labour	488,703	31.39	+3.26	394	+46	32.22
	Conservative	206,599	13.27	−2.35	115	−28	9.40
	Independents	183,329	11.78	+1.27	196	+12	16.03
	Liberal Democrats	103,087	6.62	-6.05	71	-95	5.81
	Green	36,000	2.31	+0.11	14	+6	1.14
	UKIP	4,289	0.28	+0.22	0	±0	0.00
	Scottish Socialist Party	4,183	0.27	−0.61	1	±0	0.08
	Borders Party	3,755	0.24	+0.12	2	±0	0.16
	Action to Save St John's Hospital	3,474	0.22	+0.03	0	−3	0.00
	East Dunbartonshire Independent Alliance	2,973	0.19	−0.09	2	±0	0.16
	Glasgow First	2,547	0.16	+0.16	1	+1	0.08
	Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition	2,485	0.16	+0.16	0	±0	0.00
	Christian Party	2,344	0.15	+0.12	0	±0	0.00
	All Scotland Pensioners Party	2,328	0.15	+0.08	0	±0	0.00
	Cumbernauld Independent Alliance	1,894	0.12	+0.02	1	±0	0.08
	Unionist	864	0.06	−0.09	0	±0	0.00
	Perth Independent Candidates	805	0.05	+0.05	1	+1	0.08
	Solidarity	787	0.05	−0.81	0	−1	0.00
	Socialist Labour Party	714	0.05	+0.03	0	±0	0.00
	East Kilbride Alliance	681	0.04	−0.03	0	±0	0.00
	Liberal	595	0.04	−0.02	0	±0	0.00
	National Front	369	0.02	+0.02	0	±0	0.00
	Pirate Party	292	0.02	+0.02	0	±0	0.00
	Christian Peoples Alliance	209	0.01	+0.01	0	±0	0.00
	Communist Party of Britain	94	<0.01	+0.01	0	±0	0.00
	Britannica	73	<0.01		0	±0	0.00
	Official Monster Raving Loony Party	67	<0.01		0	±0	0.00
Total		1,556,773	100.00	±0.00	1,223	+1	100.00

Note: The net gain/loss and percentage change in number of votes relates to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 3 May 2007. This differs from the table in the reference above ^[6] which shows gain/loss relative to seats held at dissolution of Scotland's councils.

Analysis

Candidates elected on first preferences, by party (2012)^[7]

Party		Total elected	Elected on 1st prefs
			Total	%	% (2007)
	Conservative	115	46	40.0	40.6
	Labour	394	199	50.5	37.4
	Liberal Democrat	71	20	28.2	21.7
	SNP	425	185	43.5	56.5
	Scottish Green	14	1	7.1	–
	Independent	200	79	39.5	31.6
	Other	4	2	50.0	14.3
Totals		1,223	532	43.5	39.7

Average first terminal transfer rates (2012)^{[lower-alpha 1][8]}

Transferred from		% non-transferable	% transferred to
			Con	Lab	LD	SNP	Ind/Other
	Conservative	33.6	–	8.0	32.4	8.3	17.6
	Labour	47.8	5.8	–	13.2	16.5	16.7
	Liberal Democrat	23.1	21.8	20.4	–	15.5	19.3
	SNP	44.2	6.0	18.1	14.1	–	17.8
	Scottish Green	20.4	5.1	19.2	19.9	18.3	17.0

Councils

Council	2007 Result: Largest party (Parties in control)		Control before election (Change in control since May 2007, if different)	2012 Result: Largest party (Parties in control)		Details
Aberdeen City		Liberal Democrat (LD + SNP)	NOC (SNP + LD)		Labour (Lab + Con + Ind)	Details
Aberdeenshire		Liberal Democrat (LD + Con)			SNP (Con + LD + Ind)	Details
Angus		SNP (Ind + Con + LD + Lab)			SNP	Details
Argyll and Bute		Independent (Ind + SNP)	NOC (Independent minority)		Independent (Ind + SNP)	Details
Clackmannanshire		Labour (Lab minority)	NOC (SNP minority)		SNP (SNP minority)	Details
Dumfries and Galloway		Conservative (LD + SNP)			Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Dundee City		SNP (Lab + LD)	NOC (SNP minority)		SNP	Details
East Ayrshire		SNP (SNP minority)	(SNP + Con)		SNP (SNP + Con)	Details
East Dunbartonshire		SNP (Lab + Con)			Labour (Lab + LD + Con)	Details
East Lothian		Labour (SNP + LD)			Labour (Lab + Con)	Details
East Renfrewshire		Conservative (Lab + Con + Ind + LD)	NOC (Lab + SNP + Ind + LD)		Labour (Lab + SNP + Ind)	Details
City of Edinburgh		Liberal Democrat (LD + SNP)			Labour (Lab + SNP)	Details
Falkirk		Labour (Lab + Ind + Con)			Labour (Lab + Con + Ind)	Details
Fife		Labour (LD + SNP)			Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Glasgow City		Labour	NOC (Lab minority)		Labour	Details
Highland		Independent (Ind + SNP)}	NOC (Ind + LD + Lab)		Independent (SNP + LD + Lab)	Details
Inverclyde		Labour (Lab minority)			Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Midlothian		Labour (Lab minority)	Labour		Labour (SNP + Green + Ind)	Details
Moray		Independent (Ind + Con)			SNP (Ind + Con)	Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar		Independent			Independent	Details
North Ayrshire		Labour (Lab minority)			SNP (SNP minority)	Details
North Lanarkshire		Labour	Labour		Labour	Details
Orkney		Independent			Independent	Details
Perth and Kinross		SNP (SNP + LD)			SNP (SNP minority)	Details
Renfrewshire		Labour (SNP + LD)			Labour	Details
Scottish Borders		Conservative (Con + LD + Ind)			Conservative (SNP + Ind + LD)	Details
Shetland		Independent			Independent	Details
South Ayrshire		Conservative (Con + Lab + Ind)			Conservative (Con + Lab + Ind)	Details
South Lanarkshire		Labour (Lab + LD + Con)			Labour (Lab minority)	Details
Stirling		Labour (Lab minority)	NOC (SNP minority)		SNP (Lab + Con)	Details
West Dunbartonshire		Labour (SNP + Ind)			Labour	Details
West Lothian		Labour (SNP + Ind)			Labour (Lab minority)	Details

Name of party shows the largest group within each council. However, the party names in brackets identify members of a coalition leading the council. In some cases, the largest party is shown, but is not in charge of the council.

Further reading

• Curtice, John (2012). "2012 Scottish Local Government Elections" (PDF). Electoral Reform Society.

Notes

1. the first terminal transfer of a major party candidate in a ward, where all of the other parties still had a candidate in the count

References

1. p.11
2. "'Dummy election' for electronic vote counting machine". BBC News. 5 August 2011.
4. "Scottish council election: Council control talks get under way". BBC News. 5 May 2012.
5. "Scottish Elections :: Local Elections 2012 - election results".
6. "BBC News- Vote 2012 - Scottish Council Results".
7. Curtice 2012, p. 22.
8. Curtice 2012, pp. 15-16.