The 2008 Scottish Labour Party deputy leadership election was an internal party election to choose a new deputy leader of the Labour Party in the Scottish Parliament, and was triggered following the resignation of

Cathy Jamieson Catherine Mary Jamieson (born 3 November 1956) is a Scottish business director, currently a director at Kilmarnock Football Club and former politician. She served as the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party in Scotland from 2000 to 2008. She p ...

, who stood down in order to campaign in the

leadership election A leadership election is a political contest held in various countries by which the members of a political party determine who will be the leader of their party. Generally, any political party can determine its own rules governing how and when a l ...

which is being held alongside the deputy leadership election.

Johann Lamont Johann MacDougall Lamont (; born 11 July 1957) is a Scottish Labour Co-operative politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2011 to 2014. She was previously a junior Scottish Executive minister from 2004 to 2007 and ...

won the election and was elected deputy leader on Saturday 13 September. The timetable for the election was finalised on Monday 28 July, and is identical to that of the leadership election. Nominations closed on Friday 1 August with the result declaration being made on 13 September.

Successfully nominated candidates

– nominated by 18 MSPs * Bill Butler – nominated by 7 MSPs Both of the declared candidates received more than five nominations from

MSPs Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; gd, Ball Pàrlamaid na h-Alba, BPA; sco, Memmer o the Scots Pairliament, MSP) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The ad ...

, which was the minimum requirement for them to get onto the ballot paper, by the close of nominations at 12:00 UTC+1 on 1 August 2008.

Nominations

Candidates are initially nominated by their parliamentary colleagues from within the Scottish Parliament, following which Westminster MPs, constituency Labour parties and affiliated trade union organisation can submit 'supporting nominations', providing their backing to a specific candidates. These nominations can be seen in the tables below:

Result

The election took place using

Alternative Vote Instant-runoff voting (IRV) is a type of Ranked voting, ranked preferential Electoral system, voting method. It uses a Majority rule, majority voting rule in single-winner elections where there are more than two candidates. It is commonly referr ...

in an electoral college, with a third of the votes allocated to Labour's MSPs, Scottish MPs and Scottish MEPs, a third to individual members of the Scottish Labour Party, and a third to individual members of affiliated organisations, mainly trade unions. In order to be elected, one candidate must have achieved a majority of votes, i.e. 50% plus 1 vote. Source
The Citizen: Campaigning for Socialism
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Suggested candidates not standing

The following either publicly suggested they would stand for election or received media speculation to that effect. However, at the close of nominations they had not been nominated by any MSPs. *

Des McNulty Des McNulty (born 28 July 1952), is a Scottish Labour Party politician, who served as the Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Clydebank and Milngavie constituency from 1999 to 2011, serving as Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Edu ...

has said he would "be inviting support from Holyrood colleagues". McNulty ultimately nominated Johann Lamont. * Margaret Curran. Originally intended to stand in the leadership election; however she subsequently stood in and lost the Glasgow East by-election on 24 July, raising questions over any leadership or deputy leadership ambitions. Curran ultimately nominated Johann Lamont.

Timeline of events

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Scottish Labour Party Deputy Leadership Election, 2008 2008 elections in the United Kingdom

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...