1999 Scottish local elections

Summary

Local elections were held in Scotland on 6 May 1999, the same day as First Scottish Parliament elections. It was the second election for all 32 Scottish councils and the first after a major review into all wards.

1999 Scottish local elections

← 1995 6 May 1999 (1999-05-06) 2003 →

All 1,222 seats to Scottish councils
  First party Second party
 
Leader Donald Dewar Alex Salmond
Party Labour SNP
Seats won 550 204
Seat change Decrease63 Increase23
Popular vote 829,921 655,299
Percentage 36.6% 28.7%
Swing Decrease7.0% Increase2.6%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader David McLetchie Jim Wallace
Party Conservative Liberal Democrats
Seats won 108 156
Seat change Increase26 Increase35
Popular vote 308,170 289,236
Percentage 13.5% 12.7%
Swing Increase2.0% Increase2.9%

Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Boundary changes edit

A Major review of all boundaries took place before the 1999 elections as part of the third comprehensive review by the independent Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland [1] which resulted in an overall reduction of wards to 1222 instead of 1245 and many wards were restructured.[2]

NOT a full list:

  • Aberdeen Lost 7 seats
  • Aberdeenshire Gained :
  • Argyll & Bute Gained
  • Dumfries & Galloway Lost
  • Falkirk Lost 4 seats:
  • Fife lost 12 seats.
  • Glasgow lost 4 seats.

Results edit

Summary of the 1999 Scottish council election results[3]
Parties Votes Votes % Wards Wards % Net
Gain/Loss
Labour 829,921 36.6 550 45.0
SNP 655,299 28.7 204 16.7
Liberal Democrats 289,236 12.7 156 12.8
Conservative 308,170 13.5 108 8.8
Independent 172,297 7.5 191 16.0
Other 30,342 1.0 9 0.7
Total 2,285,345 n/a 1222 n/a n/a
  • Voter turnout: 59.1%

Councils edit

Council 1995 result Control before election
(if different)
1999 result Details
Aberdeen City Labour Labour Details
Aberdeenshire No overall control No overall control Details
Angus SNP SNP
Argyll and Bute Independent Independent
Clackmannanshire Labour No overall control
Dumfries and Galloway Labour Labour
Dundee City Labour No overall control
East Ayrshire Labour Labour Details
East Dunbartonshire Labour NOC No overall control
East Lothian Labour Labour
East Renfrewshire No overall control No overall control
City of Edinburgh Labour Labour
Falkirk Labour No overall control
Fife Labour Labour Details
Glasgow City Labour Labour
Highland Independent Independent Details
Inverclyde Labour Labour Details
Midlothian Labour Labour
Moray SNP No overall control
Na h-Eileanan Siar Independent Independent
North Ayrshire Labour Labour
North Lanarkshire Labour Labour Details
Orkney Independent Independent
Perth and Kinross SNP NOC No overall control
Renfrewshire No overall control NOC Labour
Scottish Borders No overall control No overall control
Shetland Independent Independent
South Ayrshire Labour Labour
South Lanarkshire Labour Labour Details
Stirling Labour NOC No overall control (Lab minority)
West Dunbartonshire Labour Labour
West Lothian Labour Labour

See also edit

  • Wayback Machine Detail report into the elections
  • Scottish Boundary Commission | he Boundary Commission for Scotland is responsible for reviews of UK Parliament constituencies in Scotland. Review of the Third Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements which took place between 1996 and 1998.
  • LGC Elections Centre More details about 1999 elections.
  • BBC News | Elections | Locals 99 | | State of the Parties

Notes and references edit

  1. ^ "Council ward boundary changes". scotland.gov.uk. 21 January 1999. Archived from the original on 27 April 2012.
  2. ^ "Unitary Council Political Compositions". scottishpolitics.org. Archived from the original on 11 December 2004.
  3. ^ Denver, David; Bochel, Hugh (Winter 2000), "The Forgotten Elections: The Scottish Council Elections of 1999", Scottish Affairs (PDF), vol. 30, archived from the original (PDF) on 3 October 2011, retrieved 14 July 2011