Elections to East Lothian Council were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as the other Scottish local government elections and the Scottish Parliament general election.
East Lothian Council is one of the 32 Local Government councils in Scotland covering the East Lothian area.
Local government in Scotland is organised through 32 unitary authorities designated as councils which consist of councillors elected every five years by registered voters in each of the council areas.
The election was the first using seven new wards created as a result of the Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004. Each ward will elect three or four councillors using the single transferable vote system of proportional representation. The new wards replace 23 single-member wards which used the plurality (first past the post) system of election.
The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 is an Act of the Scottish Parliament which provided, amongst other things, for the election of councillors to the local authorities in Scotland by the single transferable vote system.
The single transferable vote (STV) is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat organizations or constituencies. Under STV, an elector (voter) has a single vote that is initially allocated to their most preferred candidate. Votes are totalled and a quota derived. If their candidate achieves quota, he/she is elected and in some STV systems any surplus vote is transferred to other candidates in proportion to the voters' stated preferences. If more candidates than seats remain, the bottom candidate is eliminated with his/her votes being transferred to other candidates as determined by the voters' stated preferences. These elections and eliminations, and vote transfers if applicable, continue until there are only as many candidates as there are unfilled seats. The specific method of transferring votes varies in different systems.
Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.
Party | Seats | Gains | Losses | Net gain/loss | Seats % | Votes % | Votes | +/− | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Labour | 7 | N\A | N\A | -9 | 30.4 | 32.6 | 13,514 | ||
SNP | 7 | N\A | N\A | +6 | 30.4 | 26.9 | 11,157 | ||
Liberal Democrats | 6 | N\A | N\A | +5 | 26.1 | 15.4 | 6,391 | ||
Conservative | 2 | N\A | N\A | -2 | 8.7 | 17.4 | 7,209 | ||
Scottish Green | 0 | N\A | N\A | 0 | 0.0 | 1.6 | 674 | ||
Solidarity | 0 | N\A | N\A | 0 | 0.0 | 0.5 | 221 | ||
Scottish Senior Citizens | 0 | N\A | N\A | 0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 75 | ||
Independent | 1 | N\A | N\A | 0 | 4.3 | 5.3 | 2,200 |
Musselburgh West | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
SNP | John Williamson | 1,427 | 30.7 | 1 | 1 | |
Labour | John McNeil | 1,144 | 24.6 | 2 | 2 | |
Liberal Democrats | Barry Turner | 857 | 18.4 | 3 | 5 | |
Labour | John Ross | 572 | 12.3 | |||
Conservative | Robert Fairnie | 499 | 10.7 | |||
Solidarity | Jack Fraser | 153 | 3.3 |
Musselburgh East and Carberry | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
SNP | Roger Knox | 1,256 | 25.1 | 1 | 1 | |
Labour | Andy Forrest | 1,057 | 21.1 | 2 | 5 | |
Independent | John Caldwell | 937 | 18.7 | 3 | 6 | |
Liberal Democrats | Jenny Mollison | 809 | 16.2 | |||
Labour | Pat O'Donnell | 585 | 11.7 | |||
Conservative | Ian Robertson | 281 | 5.6 | |||
Scottish Senior Citizens | Alan Eeles | 75 | 1.5 |
Preston/Seton/Gosford | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
Labour | Willie Innes | 2,205 | 30.5 | 1 | 1 | |
SNP | Peter MacKenzie | 1,906 | 26.4 | 2 | 1 | |
Conservative | Michael Veitch | 1,040 | 14.4 | |||
Labour | Margaret Libberton | 927 | 12.8 | 3 | 3 | |
Liberal Democrats | Stuart Currie† | 909 | 12.6 | 4 | 5 | |
Independent | Andy Spence | 244 | 3.4 |
Fa'side | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
SNP | Kenny McLeod | 2,065 | 30.4 | 1 | 1 | |
Labour | Jim Gillies | 1,348 | 19.8 | 2 | 2 | |
Labour | Donald Grant | 1,118 | 16.4 | 4 | 4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Ruth Currie†† | 892 | 13.1 | 3 | 4 | |
Labour | Robert McNeill | 835 | 12.3 | |||
Conservative | Henry Murray-Smith | 540 | 7.9 |
North Berwick Coastal | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
Conservative | Neil Rankin | 1,837 | 29.7 | 1 | 1 | |
SNP | David Berry | 1,670 | 27.0 | 2 | 1 | |
Labour | Pat Hanson | 980 | 15.8 | |||
Liberal Democrats | Stuart MacKinnon | 747 | 12.1 | 3 | 5 | |
Conservative | Kathryn Smith | 565 | 9.1 | |||
Scottish Green | Susan Moffat | 393 | 6.3 |
Haddington and Lammermuir | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
Conservative | Ludovic Broun-Lindsay | 1,317 | 22.6 | 1 | 4 | |
SNP | Tom Trotter | 1,107 | 19.0 | 3 | 4 | |
Liberal Democrats | Sheena Richardson | 1,041 | 17.9 | 2 | 4 | |
Independent | Charles Ingle | 1,019 | 17.5 | |||
Labour | Ann McCarthy | 985 | 16.9 | |||
Scottish Green | Eurig Scandrett | 281 | 4.8 | |||
Solidarity | Gary Galbraith | 68 | 1.2 |
Dunbar and East Linton | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Party | Candidate | 1st Pref | % | Seat | Count | |
SNP | Paul McLennan | 1,726 | 30.0 | 1 | 1 | |
Liberal Democrats | Jacquie Bell | 1,136 | 19.8 | 3 | 3 | |
Conservative | Katie Mackie | 1,130 | 19.7 | |||
Labour | Norman Hampshire | 1,033 | 18.0 | 2 | 3 | |
Labour | Herbert Coutts | 725 | 12.6 |
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