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The Aberdeen Donside by-election, 2013 is a by-election that was held for the Scottish Parliament constituency of Aberdeen Donside on Thursday 20 June, following the death from cancer of the constituency's MSP, Brian Adam. [1]
By-elections, also spelled bye-elections, are used to fill elected offices that have become vacant between general elections.
The Scottish Parliament is the devolved unicameral legislature of Scotland. Located in the Holyrood area of the capital city, Edinburgh, it is frequently referred to by the metonym Holyrood.
Aberdeen Donside is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
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The seat was created as Aberdeen North following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. In the first election to the Scottish Parliament the seat was won by the Scottish Labour Party, but was gained by Brian Adam (who had contested, but lost, the seat in 1999) for the Scottish National Party in the next election. He held the seat in 2007 and 2011 with increased majorities. In the last election, Adam held the seat with a majority of 7,175 votes.
Aberdeen North was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament from 1999–2011. It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, it was one of nine constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The Scottish Labour Party is the devolved Scottish section of the UK Labour Party.
The Scottish National Party is a Scottish nationalist and social-democratic political party in Scotland. The SNP supports and campaigns for Scottish independence. It is the second-largest political party by membership in the United Kingdom, behind the Labour Party and ahead of the Conservative Party, it is the third-largest by overall representation in the House of Commons, behind the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, and it is the largest political party in Scotland, where it has the most seats in the Scottish Parliament and 35 out of the 59 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The current Scottish National Party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, has served as First Minister of Scotland since November 2014.
In the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, the SNP became the first ever majority government of the Scottish Parliament, winning 69 seats out of 129. Prior to Adam's death, however, the SNP only held a majority of one (following the election of Tricia Marwick as presiding officer and the departure of three other MSPs). This meant that if the SNP lost the by-election then the government would lose its overall majority.
Patricia "Tricia" Marwick is a Scottish politician, known for being the 4th Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, and the first woman to hold the post. She served as a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) in the first four sessions of the Parliament (1999−2016). She was initially elected from the Mid Scotland and Fife regional list 1999−2007, then as the constituency MSP for Central Fife 2007−11, which was renamed Mid Fife and Glenrothes 2011−16. She was elected to Parliament as a member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), but she suspended her membership in 2011 upon her election as the 4th Presiding Officer, following the tradition that the Presiding Officer is nonpartisan.
SNP list MSP for the North-East region, Mark McDonald, resigned his seat to contest the constituency by-election. [2] McDonald held the seat for the SNP, but with a significantly reduced majority on a lower turnout.
Mark McDonald is a Scottish politician and is the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Aberdeen Donside constituency, having previously represented the North East Scotland region between 5 May 2011 and 14 May 2013. Formerly a Scottish National Party politician and Minister for Childcare and Early Years in the Scottish Government, he was suspended by the SNP on 16 Nov 2017 following allegations of inappropriate behaviour against several women. Following a party investigation, the claims were substantiated and McDonald issued an apology on 6 March 2018, announcing he had now left the SNP and would sit in the Scottish Parliament as an Independent.
