1999 South Lanarkshire Council election

1999 South Lanarkshire Council election
← 1995 6 May 1999 (1999-05-06) 2003 →
All 67 seats to South Lanarkshire Council
34 seats needed for a majority
Registered235,695
Turnout59.7%
  First party Second party
 
Lab
SNP
Leader Edward McAvoy
Party Labour SNP
Leader's seat Bankhead
Last election 61 seats, 57.0% 8 seats, 26.8%
Seats won 51 10
Seat change Decrease 10 Increase 2
Popular vote 69,877 46,160
Percentage 50.1% 33.1%
Swing Decrease 7.0 Decrease 6.3
  Third party Fourth party
 
Con
LD
Party Conservative Liberal Democrats
Last election 2 seat, 7.0% 2 seat, 7.1%
Seats won 2 1
Seat change Steady Decrease 1
Popular vote 14,316 7,900
Percentage 10.3% 5.7%
Swing Increase 3.3% Decrease 1.4%
Council Leader before election

Tom McCabe
Labour

Council Leader after election

Edward McAvoy
Labour

Elections to South Lanarkshire Council were held on 6 May 1999, alongside elections to the Scottish Parliament. This was the second election following the local government reforms in 1994 and the first following the Third Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements which resulted in six fewer seats from the previous election.[1]

The council remained under Labour control following the election - they won seven fewer seats and collected 7% less of the overall vote share than in 1995, but with less seats available their percentage loss was only 3%, and the number of votes they collected increased substantially due to the higher voter turnout, which went up from 107,833 (46.4% turnout) in 1995 to 139,564 (59.2% turnout), an increase of 29%; this was at least partly attributable to the interest in the new Scottish Parliament - the 1995 election had not been held in conjunction with votes for any other body.

The SNP and Conservative vote numbers also each nearly doubled, but with far less dramatic gains in terms of their vote share and seats. In those circumstances, the Liberal Democrats polling almost the same numbers as four years earlier could be seen as the most disappointing outcome for a major party in South Lanarkshire, in contrast to their positive overall results across Scotland on the night.[2]

  1. ^ "Third Statutory Review of Electoral Arrangements; South Lanarkshire Council Area" (PDF). Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland. September 1998. Retrieved 23 March 2023.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference LEH1999 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).