Elections to
East Ayrshire Council
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Etymology
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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
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* 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