Bill's Comment Page

Scottish Parliament elections - Thursday, 1 May 2003

At the beginning of May there will be local government elections throughout the UK, and in Scotland (and Wales) there will be elections for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly respectively.

Elections to the Scottish Parliament, which began its modern-day functions in 1999 and hold elections every four years, are in two parts:
- In the first, a Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) is elected for each of the 73 parliamentary constituencies; these are almost the same as the constituencies for the House of Commons at Westminter, for the 'UK Parliament', although the constituencies for the latter (at least)will soon change. This part of the election is conducted on a 'first past the post basis';
- In the second, 7 'Regional List' MSPs are elected for each of 8 regional constituencies, corresponding to the regional constituencies used for the purposes of the elections to the European Parliament. This part of the election is conducted on a modified proportional representation basis;
- the objective of the second part of the election is to try and ensure that Party representation is approximately equivalent to the broad support a Party has across the whole of Scotland, rather than just in individual constituencies; this tends to favour Parties whose support, although relatively low, tends to be spread across the whole country, rather than in high concentrations in specific areas. For details of candidates across the whole of Scotland, please click here.

For the area in which I live, the candidates in the first and second parts of the election are shown below:

INVERNESS EAST, NAIRN AND LOCHABER (part 1)
Conservative: Mary Scanlon
Labour: Rhoda Grant
Liberal Democrat: Patsy Kenyon
Scottish National Party (SNP): Fergus Ewing
Scottish Socialist Party (SSP): Steven Arnott
Independent: Thomas Lamont

HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS (part 2)
LABOUR: 1. Peter Peacock, 2. Maureen MacMillan, 3. Rhoda Grant, 4. Hugh Raven, 5. Eilidh MacDonald, 6. Iain MacDonald, 7. Harry Hattan
SNP: 1. Jim Mather, 2. Fergus Ewing, 3. Margaret Ewing, 4. Rob Gibson, 5. Alasdair Nicholson, 6. David Thompson, 7. Angus MacNeil, 8.Jean Urquhart, 9. Willie Ross, 10. Allan Sillars, 11. Brian Nugent.
LIB DEM: 1. Michael Foxley, 2. Patsy Kenton, 3. Linda Gorn, 4. Jamie Paterson, 5. Paul Johnston, 6. Polly Martin, 7. Jermaine Allison, 8. Dan Farthing
CONSERVATIVE: 1. Jamie McGrigor, 2. Mary Scanlon, 3. David Petrie, 4. John Firth, 5. Christopher Zawadski, 6. Alan McLeod, 7. Frank Warren, 8. Tim Wood.
SSP: 1. Steve Arnott, 2. Norma Anderson, 3. Anne Macleod, 4. Des Divers, 5. John Aberdain, 6. Shona Laughland, 7. Barbara Whibley, 8. Dan Murray.
SOCIALIST LABOUR PARTY: 1. Claire Watt, 2. Colin Muir, 3. Zane Carpenter, 4. Kai Anderson, 5. John McDonald, 6. John Watt, 7. Thomas Appleyard
GREEN: 1. Eleanor Scott, 2. Donnie Macleod, 3. Murray Falconer, 4. Gale Falconer, 5. Lizbeth Collie, 6. Irene Brandt, 7. David Gallant, 8. Judith Jardine, 9. David Jardine, 10. Roger Humphrey
UKIP: 1. Philip Anderson, 2. Peter Hindley, 3. Christine Anderson, 4. Neil Scobie.
SPA: David Walker
THE RURAL PARTY: Kenneth McIntosh
THE COUNTRYSIDE PARTY FIGHTING RURAL ISSUES: James Crawford
PROTECT RURAL SCOTLAND PARTY: William Graham
INDEPENDENT: Arthur Robertson
INDEPENDENT: Robbie the Pict

For details of candidates for Local Government elections in Highland Region, click here and follow the 'election' link.