The 2007 Scottish local elections were held on 3 May 2007, the same day as Scottish Parliament elections and

local elections Local may refer to: Geography and transportation * Local (train), a train serving local traffic demand * Local, Missouri, a community in the United States Arts, entertainment, and media * ''Local'' (comics), a limited series comic book by Bria ...

in parts of

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

. All 32 Scottish councils had all their seats up for election – all Scottish councils are

unitary authorities A unitary authority is a type of local government, local authority in New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Unitary authorities are responsible for all local government functions within its area or performing additional functions that elsewhere are ...

Background

This was the first election for local government in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

to use the

Single Transferable Vote The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vot ...

(the system is used in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

), as implemented by 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 government in Scotland, local authorities in Scotland by the single transfera ...

. The new electoral system resulted in most councils being under

no overall control In the context of local authorities in the United Kingdom no overall control (NOC; ) is a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats, comparable to a hung parliament. Of the 248 councils who had members up for elec ...

, a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats.

eCounting fiasco

Scanners supplied by DRS Data Services Limited of

Milton Keynes Milton Keynes ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in Buckinghamshire, England, about north-west of London. At the 2021 Census, the population of Milton Keynes urban area, its urban area was 264,349. The River Great Ouse forms t ...

, in partnership with Electoral Reform Services (ERS), the trading arm of the

Electoral Reform Society The Electoral Reform Society (ERS) is an Advocacy group, independent advocacy organisation in the United Kingdom which promotes electoral reform. It seeks to replace first-past-the-post voting with proportional representation, advocating the si ...

, were used to electronically count the paper ballots in both the Scottish council elections and the Scottish Parliament general election. Because of the fiasco in 2007 of holding parliamentary (Holyrood) and local elections simultaneously, the following Scottish local elections were held in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

instead of 2011.

Party performance

The Labour party lost control of all but two of its councils, Glasgow and North Lanarkshire, but received the largest number of votes, while the SNP were the main beneficiaries of the new voting system, picking up over 180 new seats. The Scottish Greens elected their first-ever councillors, winning eight seats.

Results

, - style="background-color:#E9E9E9; ! scope="col" colspan="2" rowspan=2 , Party ! scope="col" colspan="3" , First-preference votes ! scope="col" colspan="2" , Councils ! scope="col" colspan="2" , 2003 seats ! scope="col" colspan="3" , 2007 seats , - ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Of total (%) ! scope="col" , Change ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Change ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Of total (%) ! scope="col" , Count ! scope="col" , Of total (%) ! scope="col" , Change , - , style="background-color:", , style="text-align:left;" ,

No overall control In the context of local authorities in the United Kingdom no overall control (NOC; ) is a situation in which no single political group achieves a majority of seats, comparable to a hung parliament. Of the 248 councils who had members up for elec ...

, colspan=3 , 27 , style="background-color:#dfd;", 20 , colspan=2 , colspan=3 , - , , 590,085 , 28.1 , 4.5% , 2 , , colspan=2 , 348 , 28.5% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 161 , - , , 585,885 , 27.9 , 3.8% , 1 , , colspan=2 , 363 , 29.7% , style="background-color:#dfd;", 182 , - , , 327,591 , 15.6 , 0.5% , 2 , , colspan=2 , 143 , 11.7% , style="background-color:#dfd;", 21 , - , , 266,693 , 12.7 , 1.8% , 0 , , colspan=2 , 166 , 13.6% , style="background-color:#ffe8e8;", 9 , - , , 228,894 , 10.9 , 0.8% , 0 , , colspan=2 , 192 , 15.7% , 38 , - , style="width: 10px" style="background-color:" , , style="text-align: left;" scope="row" , Other , 102,897 , 4.9 , 1.3% , 0 , , colspan=2 , 10 , 0.8% , 6 , - , - class=sortbottom style="background-color:#E9E9E9; font-weight:bold;" ! colspan="2" style="text-align:left;" , Total , 2,099,945 , 100.0 , ±0.0 , 32 , , 1,222 , 1,222 , 1,222 , 100.00 ,

Councils

The notional results in the following table are based on a document that John Curtice and Stephen Herbert (Professors at the

University of Strathclyde The University of Strathclyde () is a public research university located in Glasgow, Scotland. Founded in 1796 as the Andersonian Institute, it is Glasgow's second-oldest university, having received its royal charter in 1964 as the first techn ...

) produced on 3 June 2005, calculating the effect of the introduction of the Single Transferable Vote on the 2003 Scottish local elections.

Notes

References

{{United Kingdom local elections, 2007

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

Local elections, Local elections May 2007 in the United Kingdom