2012 Scottish local elections

2012 Scottish local elections
All 1,223 seats to 32 Scottish councils
Turnout	39.6% (13.2%)
	Colours denote the party with the most seats
	Colours denote the party with largest share of first preference votes by ward

Last updated August 02, 2023

The 2012 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2012 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, losing over half their seats and 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.

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 Conservatives 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 the Edinburgh ward of Pentland Hills, Mike 'Professor Pongoo' Ferrigan, who 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 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
Party		#	%	Swing (pp)	#	Net Gain	%
	SNP	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	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
	TUSC	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
Party		Total elected	Total	%	% (2007)
	Conservative	115	46	40.0	40.6
	Labour	394	199	50.5	37.4
	Liberal Democrats	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
Transferred from		% non-transferable	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 Democrats	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		Control before election (Change in control since May 2007, if different)		Details
Aberdeen City	Liberal Democrats (LD + SNP)	NOC (SNP + LD)	Labour (Lab + Con + Ind)	Details
Aberdeenshire	Liberal Democrats (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 Democrats (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.

Notes

↑ 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

Related Research Articles

Aberdeen City Council is the local government authority for the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. It was created in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, though a sense of Aberdeen as a city, with its own city council, can be traced back to 1900, when the county of the city of Aberdeen was created.

The Scottish Liberal Democrats is a liberal, federalist political party in Scotland, a part of the United Kingdom Liberal Democrats. The party currently holds 4 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 4 of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons.

The 2007 United Kingdom local elections were held on Thursday 3 May 2007. These elections took place in most of England and all of Scotland. There were no local government elections in Wales though the Welsh Assembly had a general election on the same day. There were no local government elections in Northern Ireland. Just over half of English councils and almost all the Scottish councils began the counts on Friday, rather than Thursday night, because of more complex arrangements regarding postal votes.

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.

The 2011 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.

The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to 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.

Elections to the Borough Council in Slough, England, were held on 1 May 2008. This was the 123rd Slough general local authority election since Slough became a local government unit in 1863.

The 2003 Wealden District Council election took place on 1 May 2003 to elect members of Wealden District Council in East Sussex, England. The whole council was up for election with boundary changes since the last election in 1999 reducing the number of seats by 3. The Conservative Party stayed in overall control of the council.

Elections to East Lothian Council were held on 3 May 2012, on the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election used the 7 wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with each ward electing three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation, with 23 councillors elected.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2012 South Lanarkshire Council election</span> South Lanarkshire Council election

Elections to South Lanarkshire Council took place on 3 May 2012 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections.

Elections to East Dunbartonshire Council were held on 3 May 2012, the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election used the eight wards created under the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004, with 24 Councillors being elected. Each ward elected 3 members, using the STV electoral system.

The 2017 Scottish local elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local authorities. The SNP retained its position as the largest party in terms of votes and councillors, despite suffering minor losses. The Conservatives made gains and displaced Labour as the second largest party, while the Liberal Democrats suffered a net loss of councillors despite increasing their share of the vote. Minor parties and independents polled well; and independent councillors retained majority control over the three island councils. For the first time since the local government reforms in 1995, all mainland councils fell under no overall control.

Elections to Fife Council were held on 4 May 2017, the same day as the other Scottish local government elections. The election used the 22 wards created as a result of the Local Government Commission for Scotland's 5th review which was published in September 2016, with each ward electing three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system form of proportional representation, with 75 councillors elected; a decrease of three seats from 2012 as one ward, The Lochs, was abolished.

The 2022 election to the City of Edinburgh Council took place on Thursday 5 May 2022, on the same day as the 31 other local authorities in Scotland. The election used the same 17 wards used in 2017; each ward elects three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 South Lanarkshire Council election</span> South Lanarkshire Council election

Elections to South Lanarkshire Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections.

The 2022 West Lothian Council election took place on 5 May 2022. Elected positions in all 9 wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 were up for election, with each ward electing three or four Councillors using the single transferable vote (STV) system form of proportional representation, with 33 Councillors being elected in total.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2022 Angus Council election</span> Angus Council election

Elections to Angus Council took place on 5 May 2022, the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections.

Elections to Argyll and Bute Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections.

Elections to Aberdeenshire Council took place on Thursday 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections.

Elections to Aberdeen City Council took place on 5 May 2022 on the same day as the 31 other Scottish local government elections.

References

↑ Liddell, Greig; Burnside, Ross; Campbell, Allan; McGrath, Francesca; McIver, Iain (8 June 2012). "SPICe Briefing: Local government elections 2012" (PDF). SPICe. p. 11.
↑ "'Dummy election' for electronic vote counting machine". BBC News. 5 August 2011.
↑ Morse, Felicity (4 May 2012). "Candidate Dressed as a Penguin Beats Lib Dems". The Huffington Post.
↑ "Scottish council election: Council control talks get under way". BBC News. 5 May 2012.
↑ "Scottish Elections :: Local Elections 2012 - election results".
↑ "Vote 2012 - Scottish Council Results". BBC News. 21 May 2012.
↑ Curtice 2012, p. 22.
↑ Curtice 2012, pp. 15–16.

Preceded by 2007 Scottish local elections	Scottish local elections	Succeeded by 2017 Scottish local elections

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[8] 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

[1] Liddell, Greig; Burnside, Ross; Campbell, Allan; McGrath, Francesca; McIver, Iain (8 June 2012). "SPICe Briefing: Local government elections 2012" (PDF). SPICe. p. 11.

[2] "'Dummy election' for electronic vote counting machine". BBC News. 5 August 2011.

[3] Morse, Felicity (4 May 2012). "Candidate Dressed as a Penguin Beats Lib Dems". The Huffington Post.

[4] "Scottish council election: Council control talks get under way". BBC News. 5 May 2012.

[5] "Scottish Elections :: Local Elections 2012 - election results".

[6] "Vote 2012 - Scottish Council Results". BBC News. 21 May 2012.

[FOOTNOTECurtice201222-7] Curtice 2012, p. 22.

[FOOTNOTECurtice201215–16-9] Curtice 2012, pp. 15–16.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[lower-alpha 1]

[8]

v t e Elections and referendums in Scotland
Scottish Parliament	1999 2003 2007 2011 2016 2021 Next
Parliament of Scotland	1612 1617 1621 1628 1639 1644 1648 1661 1669 1681 1685 1702
Convention of Estates	1617 1625 1630 1643 1665 1667 1678 1689
UK Parliament	1801 co-option 1802 1806 1807 1812 1818 1820 1826 1830 1831 1832 1835 1837 1841 1847 1852 1857 1859 1865 1868 1874 1880 1885 1886 1892 1895 1900 1906 1910 (Jan) 1910 (Dec) 1918 1922 1923 1924 1929 1931 1935 1945 1950 1951 1955 1959 1964 1966 1970 1974 (Feb) 1974 (Oct) 1979 1983 1987 1992 1997 2001 2005 2010 2015 2017 2019 Next
Local elections	1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1977 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1995 1999 2003 2007 2012 2017 2022
Referendums	1979 1997 2014

v t e (2011 ←) 2012 United Kingdom local elections (→ 2013)
Metropolitan boroughs (England)	Barnsley Birmingham Bolton Bradford Bury Calderdale Coventry Doncaster Dudley Gateshead Kirklees Knowsley Leeds Liverpool Manchester Newcastle upon Tyne North Tyneside Oldham Rochdale Rotherham Salford Sandwell Sefton Sheffield Solihull South Tyneside St Helens Stockport Sunderland Tameside Trafford Wakefield Walsall Wigan Wirral Wolverhampton
Unitary authorities (England)	Blackburn with Darwen Derby Halton Hartlepool Kingston upon Hull Milton Keynes North East Lincolnshire Peterborough Plymouth Portsmouth Reading Slough Southampton Southend-on-Sea Swindon Thurrock Warrington Wokingham
District councils (England)	Adur Amber Valley Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Brentwood Broxbourne Burnley Cambridge Cannock Chase Carlisle Castle Point Cheltenham Cherwell Chorley Colchester Craven Crawley Daventry Eastleigh Elmbridge Epping Forest Exeter Fareham Gloucester Gosport Great Yarmouth Harlow Harrogate Hart Hastings Havant Hertsmere Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Ipswich Lincoln Maidstone Mole Valley Newcastle-under-Lyme North Hertfordshire Norwich Nuneaton and Bedworth Oxford Pendle Preston Purbeck Redditch Reigate and Banstead Rochford Rossendale Rugby Runnymede Rushmoor South Cambridgeshire South Lakeland St Albans Stevenage Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Tamworth Tandridge Three Rivers Tunbridge Wells Watford Welwyn Hatfield West Lancashire West Oxfordshire Weymouth and Portland Winchester Woking Worcester Worthing Wyre Forest
Unitary authorities (Wales)	Blaenau Gwent Bridgend Caerphilly Cardiff Carmarthenshire Ceredigion Conwy Denbighshire Flintshire Gwynedd Merthyr Tydfil Monmouthshire Neath Port Talbot Newport Pembrokeshire Powys Rhondda Cynon Taf Swansea Torfaen Vale of Glamorgan Wrexham
Unitary authorities (Scotland)	Aberdeen Aberdeenshire Angus Argyll and Bute Clackmannanshire Dumfries and Galloway Dundee East Ayrshire East Dunbartonshire East Lothian East Renfrewshire Edinburgh Falkirk Fife Glasgow Highland Inverclyde Midlothian Moray Comhairle nan Eilean Siar North Ayrshire North Lanarkshire Orkney Perth and Kinross Renfrewshire Scottish Borders Shetland South Ayrshire South Lanarkshire Stirling West Dunbartonshire West Lothian
Mayoral elections	Bristol Liverpool London Salford
PCC elections	Police and crime commissioner elections
Regional assembly elections	London Assembly