2007 Scottish Parliament election

2007 Scottish Parliament election

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All 129 seats to the Scottish Parliament 65 seats needed for a majority
Opinion polls
Turnout	Constituency - 53.9% 4.2pp Regional - 54.0% 4.3pp
First party Second party Third party   Leader Alex Salmond Jack McConnell Annabel Goldie Party SNP Labour Conservative Leader's seat Gordon Motherwell and Wishaw West of Scotland Last election 27 seats 50 seats 18 seats Seats won 47 46 17 Seat change 20 4 1 Constituency vote 664,227 648,374 334,743 % and swing 32.9% 9.1% 32.1% 2.5% 16.6% Regional vote 633,611 595,415 284,035 % and swing 31.0% 10.1% 29.2% 0.2% 13.9% 1.6%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Nicol Stephen Robin Harper / Shiona Baird Colin Fox Party Liberal Democrats Scottish Green Scottish Socialist Leader's seat Aberdeen South Lothians / North East Scotland (defeated) Lothians (defeated) Last election 17 seats 7 seats 6 seats Seats won 16 2 0 Seat change 1 5 6 Constituency vote 326,232 2,971 525 % and swing 16.2% 0.8% 0.1% 0.1% 0.0% 6.2% Regional vote 230,651 82,577 13,096 % and swing 11.3% 0.5% 4.0% 2.9% 0.6% 6.1%
The map shows the election results in single-member constituencies. The additional member MSPs in the 8 regions are shown around the map.
First Minister before election Jack McConnell Labour First Minister after election Alex Salmond SNP

The 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election^[1] to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999. Local elections in Scotland fell on the same day.

The Scottish National Party emerged as the largest party with 47 seats, closely followed by the incumbent Scottish Labour Party with 46 seats. The Scottish Conservatives won 17 seats, the Scottish Liberal Democrats 16 seats, the Scottish Greens 2 seats and one Independent (Margo MacDonald) was also elected. The SNP initially approached the Liberal Democrats for a coalition government, but the Lib Dems turned them down.^[2] Ultimately, the Greens agreed to provide the numbers to vote in an SNP minority government, with SNP leader Alex Salmond as First Minister.^[3]

The Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish Senior Citizens Unity Party, which won seats in the 2003 election, lost all of their seats. Former MSP Tommy Sheridan's new party, Solidarity, also failed to win any seats. Campbell Martin and Dr Jean Turner both lost their seats, and Dennis Canavan and Brian Monteith retired.