56-6068: (Redirected from Tory MSPs ) This is a list of Scottish Conservative MSPs . It includes all members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) who represented the Scottish Conservatives in the Scottish Parliament . List of MSPs [ edit ] Name Constituency or region Type Start year End year Reason Bill Aitken Glasgow Region 1999 2011 ? Jeremy Balfour Lothian Region 2016 Serving Michelle Ballantyne South Scotland Region 2017 2020 Resigned from Conservatives Bill Bowman North East Scotland Region 2016 2021 Retired Miles Briggs Lothian Region 2016 Serving Ted Brocklebank Mid Scotland and Fife Region 2003 2011 Retired Gavin Brown Lothians Region 2007 2011 Region abolished Lothian Region 2011 2016 Retired Derek Brownlee South of Scotland Region 2005 2011 Defeated Cameron Buchanan Lothian Region 2013 2016 Retired Alexander Burnett Aberdeenshire West Constituency 2016 Serving Donald Cameron Highlands and Islands Region 2016 Serving Jackson Carlaw West of Scotland Region 2007 2011 Region abolished West Scotland Region 2011 2016 Elected for constituency Eastwood Constituency 2016 Serving Finlay Carson Galloway and West Dumfries Constituency 2016 Serving Peter Chapman North East Scotland Constituency 2016 2021 Retired Maurice Corry West Scotland Region 2016 2021 Defeated David Davidson North East Scotland Region 1999 2007 Defeated Ruth Davidson Glasgow Region 2011 2016 Elected for constituency Edinburgh Central Constituency 2016 2021 Retired James Douglas-Hamilton Lothians Region 1999 2007 Retired Sharon Dowey South Scotland Region 2021 Serving Alex Fergusson South of Scotland Region 1999 2003 Elected for constituency Galloway and Upper Nithsdale Constituency 2003 2011 Constituency abolished Galloway and West Dumfries Constituency 2011 2016 Retired Russell Findlay West Scotland Region 2021 Serving Murdo Fraser Mid Scotland and Fife Region 2001 Serving Meghan Gallacher Central Scotland Region 2021 Serving Phil Gallie South of Scotland Region 1999 2007 Retired Maurice Golden West Scotland Region 2016 2021 Elected for another region North East Scotland Region 2021 Serving Annabel Goldie West of Scotland Region 1999 2011 Region abolished West Scotland Region 2011 2016 Retired Pam Gosal West Scotland Region 2021 Serving Jamie Greene West Scotland Region 2016 Serving Sandesh Gulhane Glasgow Region 2021 Serving Jamie Halcro Johnston Highlands and Islands Region 2017 Serving Rachael Hamilton South Scotland Constituency 2016 2017 Resigned Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire Constituency 2017 Serving Keith Harding Mid Scotland and Fife Region 1999 2003 Defeated Alison Harris Central Scotland Region 2016 2021 Retired Craig Hoy South Scotland Region 2021 Serving Nick Johnston Mid Scotland and Fife Region 1999 2001 Resigned Alex Johnstone North East Scotland Region 1999 2016 Died Liam Kerr North East Scotland Region 2016 Serving Stephen Kerr Central Scotland Region 2021 Serving John Lamont Roxburgh and Berwickshire Constituency 2007 2011 Constituency abolished Ettrick, Roxburgh and Berwickshire Constituency 2011 2017 Resigned Gordon Lindhurst Lothian Region 2016 2021 Defeated Dean Lockhart Mid Scotland and Fife Region 2016 Serving Douglas Lumsden North East Scotland Region 2021 Serving Tom Mason North East Scotland Region 2017 2021 Retired Jamie McGrigor Highlands and Islands Region 1999 2016 Retired Lyndsay McIntosh Central Scotland Region 1999 2003 Defeated David McLetchie Lothians Region 1999 2003 Elected for constituency Edinburgh Pentlands Constituency 2003 2011 Defeated Lothian Region 2011 2013 Died Nanette Milne North East Scotland Region 2003 2016 Retired Margaret Mitchell Central Scotland Region 2003 2021 Retired Brian Monteith Mid Scotland and Fife Region 1999 2005 Left
112-505: A swing of less than 5% from the 2003 result to change hands. Many of the seats that changed hands are not listed here. For example, the Scottish National Party gained several seats ( Stirling , Edinburgh East & Musselburgh , Gordon , Livingston and Argyll & Bute ) with very large swings, yet did not gain any of their top three targets. The Scottish Parliament officially met on 9 May, and met again on 14 May to elect
168-647: A Presiding Officer. On 16 May, the Parliament met to hold the election of the First Minister. Four nominations were made: Annabel Goldie of the Conservatives, Jack McConnell of Labour, Nicol Stephen of the Liberal Democrats, and Alex Salmond of the Scottish National Party. Salmond was elected in the second round of voting by 49 votes to McConnell's 46. 33 abstentions were recorded. The election provided for
224-527: A five-year cycle. The Scotland Act 1998 as amended by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act 2011 sets out that ordinary general elections for the Scottish Parliament are held on the first Thursday in May, every five years. 2007 Scottish Parliament election Jack McConnell Labour Alex Salmond SNP The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to
280-419: A minority administration which did not have the explicit support of Parliament. Salmond was supported in the election by the two Green MSPs. Otherwise, voting was conducted strictly along party lines. At time of dissolution of the Scottish Parliament at midnight on Monday 2 April 2007, there were five party 'groups' represented on the Parliament's Bureau: Labour (50), SNP (25), Conservative (17), LibDem (17), and
336-566: A new set of generally larger constituencies, fewer in number, in 2005. The Arbuthnott Commission reported in January 2006, concerning the multiplicity of voting systems and electoral divisions in Scotland. Council elections on the same day used Single Transferable Vote for the first time, but there was no change to the Holyrood election system, except regarding use of vote-counting machines , before
392-535: A small number of seats. A number of local issue parties also stood in single constituencies. The Nine Per Cent Growth Party stood candidates on the regional lists, and had a candidate for the local council elections of the same year. Standing in the Glasgow Regional List the party finished last of 23 candidates, receiving only 80 votes (0.04%), a record low. Some counts in the Western Isles ( Barra &
448-518: A small overall majority of five seats via a coalition of Labour and the Liberal Democrats . The Lab-LD social liberal coalition had been in power, with three different First Ministers, since the first Scottish Parliament election in 1999 . Opinion polls suggested its majority could be lost in 2007, due to falling support for the Labour Party and rising support for other parties, in particular
504-566: Is a sub-division of a region; the additional members system is designed to produce proportional representation for each region, and the total number of MSPs elected to the parliament is 129. The election was the first using constituencies (see Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions ) that are not identical to constituencies of the House of Commons ( Parliament of the United Kingdom ). Scottish Westminster constituencies were replaced with
560-533: Is asked to cast 2 votes, resulting in MSPs being elected in one of two ways: With the additional members system, there are 3 ways in which a person can stand to be a MSP: A candidate may stand both in a constituency and on a regional list. Constituency seats are decided first. Candidates who succeed in being elected to a constituency seat will then have their name removed from the regional list process. All MSP positions become simultaneously vacant for elections held on
616-936: The 2003 election , lost all of their seats. Former MSP Tommy Sheridan 's new party, Solidarity , also failed to win any seats. Campbell Martin and Dr Jean Turner both lost their seats, and Dennis Canavan and Brian Monteith retired. Charles III William , Duke of Rothesay Swinney government The Rt Hon John Swinney MSP The Rt Hon John Swinney MSP Kate Forbes MSP Sixth session Alison Johnstone MSP Angela Constance MSP Dorothy Bain KC The Rt Hon Lord Carloway KC PC United Kingdom Parliament elections European Parliament elections Local elections Referendums Starmer ministry The Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP The Rt Hon Ian Murray MP The main issues during
SECTION 10
#1733092603352672-879: The British National Party (BNP), the Scottish Unionist Party , the Scottish Socialist Labour Party , the Christian Peoples Alliance , the Scottish Christian Party . Turnout in the election was 51.7% in the constituency vote and 52.4% in the regional vote up from 2003 where the turnout was 49.4% in both the constituency and regional vote Notes: Independents contested 17 seats and three regions. Scottish Greens contested 1 seat, Scottish Socialist Party contested 1 seat, Scottish Christian Party, Scottish Voice etc. contested
728-843: The Scottish Green Party . The other parties represented in the Parliament before the election were the Scottish Conservative Party , the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP), Solidarity and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party . (Solidarity is a new party, having broken away from the SSP in 2006.) Other parties that campaigned for seats in Holyrood included the UK Independence Party (UKIP),
784-608: The Scottish Greens 2 seats and one Independent ( Margo MacDonald ) was also elected. The SNP initially approached the Liberal Democrats for a coalition government, but the Lib Dems turned them down. Ultimately, the Greens agreed to provide the numbers to vote in an SNP minority government , with SNP leader Alex Salmond as First Minister . The Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party , which won seats in
840-757: The Scottish National Party (SNP) . The polls suggested that no single party was likely to acquire an overall majority, nor was there an obvious alternative coalition ready to form a new Executive. A TNS Poll in November 2006 gave Labour an 8% lead over the SNP which was second behind Labour in terms of numbers of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs). As the election approached the SNP gained support while Labour's support declined. Based on pre-election projections, there could have been some possibility of an SNP–Liberal Democrat coalition, which might have extended to include
896-659: The Uists ) were delayed because the chartered helicopter sent to pick up the ballot boxes was delayed by bad weather. The boxes were instead transferred by sea and road to be counted in Stornoway . The votes were announced around 12.00 on Friday 4 May. A man smashed ballot boxes with a golf club at a polling station at Carrick Knowe in Corstorphine in Edinburgh . About 100 ballots were damaged, some having to be taped back together. The man
952-535: The 2007 election. Scanners supplied by DRS Data Services Limited of Milton Keynes , in partnership with Electoral Reform Services, the trading arm of the Electoral Reform Society , were used to electronically count the paper ballots in both the Scottish Parliament general election and the Scottish council elections , which took place on the same day. Below are listed all the constituencies which required
1008-1992: The Conservatives Edward Mountain Highlands and Islands Region 2016 Serving David Mundell South of Scotland Region 1999 2005 Resigned Oliver Mundell Dumfriesshire Constituency 2016 Serving Dave Petrie Highlands and Islands Region 2006 2007 Defeated Douglas Ross Highlands and Islands Region 2016 2017 Resigned Highlands and Islands Region 2021 Serving Mary Scanlon Highlands and Islands Region 1999 2016 Retired John Scott Ayr Constituency 2000 2021 Defeated Graham Simpson Central Scotland Region 2016 Serving Liz Smith Mid Scotland and Fife Region 2007 Serving Alexander Stewart Mid Scotland and Fife Region 2016 Serving Ross Thomson North East Scotland Region 2016 2017 Resigned Adam Tomkins Glasgow Region 2016 2021 Retired Murray Tosh South of Scotland Region 1999 2003 Switched region West of Scotland Region 2003 2007 Defeated Ben Wallace North East Scotland Region 1999 2003 Retired Sue Webber Lothian Region 2021 Serving Annie Wells Glasgow Region 2016 Serving Tess White North East Scotland Region 2021 Serving Brian Whittle South Scotland Region 2016 Serving John Young West of Scotland Region 1999 2003 Retired Notes [ edit ] ^ Alex Fergusson served as Presiding Officer of
1064-618: The Greens (7). There was also one 'mixed' administrative grouping of 5 independent MSPs and 1 Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party MSP. Of the major party leaders in the Scottish Parliament, only one, Jack McConnell , of the Scottish Labour Party fought the 2003 Scottish Parliamentary election as leader. Nicol Stephen succeeded Jim Wallace as Deputy First Minister and Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in June 2005, after
1120-576: The Scottish Parliament ( MSP ; Scottish Gaelic : Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA ; Scots : Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament . The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation , where each constituency has its own representative, and each region has seats given to political parties to reflect as closely as possible its level of support among voters. Each registered voter
1176-476: The Scottish Parliament from 2007 to 2011. As is customary, he suspended his Conservative party membership for that period. References [ edit ] ^ "Bill Aitken" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Jeremy Balfour" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Michelle Ballantyne" . Members of
SECTION 20
#17330926033521232-1041: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) , on the Scottish Parliament website Scottish Conservatives v t e Lists of members of the Scottish Parliament By session 1st Parliament (1999–2003) 2nd Parliament (2003–2007) 3rd Parliament (2007–2011) 4th Parliament (2011–2016) 5th Parliament (2016–2021) 6th Parliament (2021–present) By party Conservative Greens Independent Labour Liberal Democrats Scottish Socialist Party Scottish National Party Other Presiding officers and deputy presiding officers First ministers Women By-elections Regional member changes Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Conservative_members_of_the_Scottish_Parliament&oldid=1252896569 " Categories : Conservative MSPs Lists of members of
1288-523: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Alexander Stewart" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Ross Thomson" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Adam Tomkins" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Murray Tosh" . Members of
1344-513: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Ben Wallace" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Sue Webber" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Annie Wells" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Tess White" . Members of
1400-568: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Bill Bowman" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Miles Briggs" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Ted Brocklebank" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Gavin Brown" . Members of
1456-420: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Brian Whittle" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "John Young" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . External links [ edit ] Current and previous Members of
1512-521: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "David Mundell" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Oliver Mundell" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Dave Petrie" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Douglas Ross" . Members of
1568-400: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Derek Brownlee" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Cameron Buchanan" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Alexander Burnett" . Members of
1624-525: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Donald Cameron" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Jackson Carlaw" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Finlay Carson" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Peter Chapman" . Members of
1680-526: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "John Lamont" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Gordon Lindhurst" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Dean Lockhart" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Douglas Lumsden" . Members of
1736-516: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Mary Scanlon" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "John Scott" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Graham Simpson" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Liz Smith" . Members of
List of Conservative members of the Scottish Parliament - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-533: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Maurice Corry" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "David Davidson" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Ruth Davidson" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "James Douglas-Hamilton" . Members of
1848-526: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Meghan Gallacher" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Phil Gallie" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Maurice Golden" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Annabel Goldie" . Members of
1904-530: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Nanette Milne" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Margaret Mitchell" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Brian Monteith" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Edward Mountain" . Members of
1960-519: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Nick Johnston" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Alex Johnstone" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Liam Kerr" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Stephen Kerr" . Members of
2016-528: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Pam Gosal" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Jamie Greene" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Sandesh Gulhane" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Jamie Halcro Johnston" . Members of
2072-522: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Rachael Hamilton" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Keith Harding" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Alison Harris" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Craig Hoy" . Members of
2128-524: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Sharon Dowey" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Alex Fergusson" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Russell Findlay" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Murdo Fraser" . Members of
2184-525: The Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Tom Mason" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Jamie McGrigor" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "Lyndsay McIntosh" . Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) . Scottish Parliament . Retrieved 17 May 2021 . ^ "David McLetchie" . Members of
2240-1396: The Scottish Parliament by party Hidden categories: Articles with short description Short description is different from Wikidata Use dmy dates from May 2021 Use British English from May 2021 Member of the Scottish Parliament King Charles III [REDACTED] William, Prince of Wales [REDACTED] Charles III ( King-in-Council ) [REDACTED] Starmer ministry ( L ) Keir Starmer ( L ) Angela Rayner ( L ) ( King-in-Parliament ) [REDACTED] Charles III [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Lord Reed The Lord Hodge Andrew Bailey Monetary Policy Committee Charles III William , Duke of Rothesay Swinney government The Rt Hon John Swinney MSP The Rt Hon John Swinney MSP Kate Forbes MSP Sixth session Alison Johnstone MSP Angela Constance MSP Dorothy Bain KC The Rt Hon Lord Carloway KC PC United Kingdom Parliament elections European Parliament elections Local elections Referendums Starmer ministry The Rt Hon Keir Starmer MP The Rt Hon Ian Murray MP Member of
2296-486: The Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day. The Scottish National Party emerged as the largest party with 47 seats, closely followed by the incumbent Scottish Labour Party with 46 seats. The Scottish Conservatives won 17 seats, the Scottish Liberal Democrats 16 seats,
List of Conservative members of the Scottish Parliament - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-471: The brief written instructions remained, they were presented in a much smaller font size. The column headings moved above the bold lines defining the columns and the visual prompt of the split arrow leading to the two columns is completely missing. This misleading ballot was made more complicated by two additional features of the balloting: several small parties like the Green Party ran one or fewer candidates in
2408-569: The campaign trail were healthcare , education , council tax reform, pensions , the Union , Trident (the submarines are based in Scotland), the Iraq War and more powers for the Scottish Parliament. Some parties proposed raise the school leaving age from 16 to 18 and raising the minimum age to purchase tobacco products from 16 to 18. Jack McConnell , as First Minister , entered the election defending
2464-479: The constituency seats and parties were able to choose to put the name of their leader instead of the name of the party in the label for the list seats (For example, the SNP was listed as "Alex Salmond for First Minister", rather than the party name). Such poor ballot design decisions contributed to a similarly higher rate of spoiled ballots in the 2000 United States presidential election in areas of Florida such as Miami-Dade and Duval counties. Another reason presented
2520-414: The early hours of Friday morning before all results had been counted. Furthermore, the primary reason for the regional and constituency ballots being placed on the same sheet of paper is due to restrictions on the size of paper the machines could accurately scan. The main company concerned was DRS Ltd . Nevertheless, nearly all invalid ballots would have been spoiled no matter how they were counted. However,
2576-410: The election, many ballots in reality had subtle yet consequential differences. Taking the ballot from Glasgow Shettleston for example, although its layout is similar to the sample ballot it has many more parties on the regional ballot, giving the illusion that the list continues onto the next side (constituency ballot). Furthermore, instructions provided to voters using these sheets were abbreviated. While
2632-445: The last minute redesign of ballot papers that was blamed for the high number of rejections in two electoral regions was done to make electronic voting easier. On 5 May 2007, the BBC reported that Labour were considering legal action against some results (particularly Cunninghame North , where the SNP beat Labour by just 48 votes) due to the high number of rejected votes. A further challenge
2688-448: The latter announced that he would not be contesting the 2007 election. Alex Salmond was elected leader of the Scottish National Party in 2004, with his deputy Nicola Sturgeon . Salmond previously led the SNP between 1990 and 2000, but stood down and was replaced by his preferred successor John Swinney , who headed the party between 2000 and 2004. Following Swinney's resignation in 2004, Salmond announced that he would, once again contest
2744-448: The leadership and won the ballot of members in June 2004. Annabel Goldie was elected leader of the Scottish Conservatives in November 2005 after the resignation of the incumbent David McLetchie on 31 October 2005 after a row surrounding taxi expenses. Robin Harper and Shiona Baird were elected as Scottish Green Party Co-convenors in 2004, but as the sole Green MSP Robin Harper
2800-421: The results. There are 73 constituencies , each electing one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality ( first past the post ) system of election, which are grouped into eight regions. These regions each elect seven additional member MSPs so as to produce an overall proportional result . The D'Hondt method is used to calculate which additional member MSPs the regions elect. Each constituency
2856-434: The unusually high levels of rejected ballots in the election. One primary reason is that both the regional and constituency ballots were placed on a single sheet of paper. A large-type instruction at the top indicated "you have two votes." Being told that they had two votes, far too many voters used both votes on parties in the regional list. Although a rough template of the ballot was provided to voters by VoteScotland prior to
SECTION 50
#17330926033522912-462: Was 0.65% for regional ballot papers and 0.66% for constituency ballot papers. In total there were 16 constituencies where the number of rejected ballots exceeded the winning candidate's majority. This led to calls for an independent enquiry into the implementation of the new voting system. The BBC Scotland Chief Political Editor, Brian Taylor , described the situation as "a disgrace" during their Election Night coverage. There are several reasons for
2968-403: Was arrested on the scene. The number of 'invalid' ballot papers (residual votes) in this election was significantly higher than usual, with a total of 146,099 ballot papers (regional: 60,455 or 2.88%; constituency: 85,644 or 4.075%) being rejected, with some constituencies such as Glasgow Shettleston having rejection rates as high as 12.1%. For comparison, the rejected ballot paper rate in 2003
3024-577: Was expected from Mike Dailly from the Govan Law Centre, a member of the Labour Party, purportedly on behalf of voters in the Glasgow region . He said that the result should be challenged because there were over 10,000 rejected ballots which could have caused a different result if they had counted. Tommy Sheridan of Solidarity was only 2,215 votes short of beating the Greens for the last place as an MSP. There were no election petitions raised to challenge
3080-426: Was far lower than the parliamentary elections (although still greater than in previous local elections) despite single transferable vote being a new system for most voters. A third proposed reason was that this was the first election where electronic counting of papers had taken place. Many blamed e-counting for the increase in rejected papers, in part because the new machine counting system abandoned many counts during
3136-412: Was that local elections took place on the same day with a different voting system and different design. Whereas the parliamentary election asked voters to mark a cross, the local council elections asked voters to number/ rank their candidates, as the council elections were under the single transferable vote system. Undercutting this theory, however, was the fact that the invalid rate in the local elections
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