Elections to

East Ayrshire Council East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

were held on 1 May 2003, the same day as the 31 other local government elections in Scotland and elections to the Scottish Parliament. This was the third election since the council's creation in 1995 and the last election to use

first-past-the-post voting In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

Labour Labour or labor may refer to: * Childbirth, the delivery of a baby * Labour (human activity), or work ** Manual labour, physical work ** Wage labour, a socioeconomic relationship between a worker and an employer ** Organized labour and the labour ...

maintained control of the council after increasing their vote share to 49.2%. The party won a majority of the seats and increased their representation on the council. The Scottish National Party (SNP) remained as the largest opposition party on the council despite a net loss of six seats and the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

held their only seat on the council. Following the introduction of the

Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 The Local Governance (Scotland) Act 2004 (asp 9) 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 Commissi ...

, local elections in Scotland would use the

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

electoral system which meant this was the last election in which the 32 single-member wards created by the Third Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements would be contested.

Summary

Source:

Ward results

Stewarton East and Dunlop

Stewarton Central

Kilmaurs and Stewarton South

North Kilmarnock, Fenwick and Waterside

Crosshouse, Gatehead and Knockentiber

Altonhill, Hillhead and Longpark

Onthank

Kilmarnock Central West

Kilmarnock Central East

North New Farm Loch and Dean

South New Farm Loch

Crookedholm, Moscow, Galston West and Hurlford North

Newmilns

Grange and Howard

Kilmarnock Central South

Riccarton

Shortlees

Bellfield

Hurlford

Galston East

Darvel

Mauchline

Catrine, Sorn and Mauchline East

Muirkirk, Lugar and Logan

Drongan, Stair and Rankinston

Ochiltree, Skares, Netherthird and Craigens

Auchinleck

Cumnock West

Cumnock East

Patna and Dalrymple

Dalmellington

New Cumnock

By-elections (2003–07)

References

{{2003 United Kingdom local elections 2003 Scottish local elections 2003