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2022 Scottish local elections

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2022 Scottish local elections
← 2017 5 May 2022 (2022-05-05) 2027 →
All 1,227 seats to 32 Scottish councils
Turnout44.8% (Decrease2.1%)[1]
  First party Second party Third party
 
Nicola Sturgeon 2021.jpg
Anas Sarwar MSP.jpg
Douglas Ross 2021.jpg
Leader Nicola Sturgeon Anas Sarwar Douglas Ross
Party SNP Labour Conservative
Last election 431 seats, 32.30% 262 seats, 20.16% 276 seats, 25.30%
Seats won 453 282 214
Seat change Increase22 Increase20 Decrease63
First preferences 633,252 403,243 364,824
First preferences (%) 34.1% 21.8% 19.7%
Swing (pp) Increase1.8% Increase1.6% Decrease5.6%
  Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party
 
Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP.jpg
Lorna Slater MSP and Patrick Harvie MSP.jpg
Leader None Alex Cole-Hamilton Lorna Slater and
Patrick Harvie
(co-leaders)
Party Independent Liberal Democrats Scottish Green
Last election 168 seats, 10.4% 67 seats, 6.82% 19 seats, 4.1%
Seats won 152 87 35
Seat change Decrease15 Increase20 Increase16
First preferences 156,815 159,815 110,791
First preferences (%) 8.4% 8.6% 6.0%
Swing (pp) Decrease2.0% Increase1.7% Increase1.8%

The 2022 Scottish local elections were held on 5 May 2022, as part of the 2022 United Kingdom local elections. All 1,226 seats across all 32 Scottish local authorities were up for election and voter turnout was 44.8%.[1]

Compared to the previous elections of 2017, the Scottish National Party (SNP) gained seats and maintained its position as largest party in local government, winning 36.9% of the seats available. Scottish Labour (winning 22.9% of seats) gained seats, whilst the Scottish Conservatives (who won 17.5%) lost many seats, being displaced by Scottish Labour as the second-largest party. Independent candidates also lost seats, whilst the Scottish Liberal Democrats and the Scottish Greens increased their vote share and gained seats across Scotland.

At the 2017 election, no council was won by an overall majority of any party. In the 2022 election, the SNP increased its vote share and secured an overall majority on Dundee City Council,[2] whilst Labour won overall control of West Dunbartonshire Council.[3] Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross blamed his party's bad results on the partygate scandal.[4]

The Alba Party and Scottish Family Party ran candidates in around 100 seats each but failed to win any. The Rubbish Party and West Dunbartonshire Community Party held their singular seats, whilst the British Unionist Party gained their first seat from the Conservatives.

Background

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The last election was in 2017, which was held five years after the 2012 election, instead of four was changed in order to avoid clashing with the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.

Boundaries Scotland have conducted a review of electoral arrangements for six councils under the terms of the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018.[5] The Scottish Parliament's Local Government Committee accepted the new boundaries in Na h-Eileanan an Iar, North Ayrshire, Orkney and Shetland, but recommended against approval of the changes in Argyll and Bute and Highland.[6]

Voting system and eligibility to vote

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Ballot paper used for the elections in the Victoria Park ward of the Glasgow City Council

Councillors are elected to represent multi-member wards using the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method, which has been used for all elections to local authorities in Scotland since the 2007 election. Previous to this election, in all votes since 2007, wards have been sized such that either 3 or 4 councillors are elected per ward. However, this election was different. The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 and the Scottish Elections (Reform) Act 2020 have given Boundaries Scotland increased flexibility to vary the size of wards. Mainland wards may now have between 2 and 5 councillors, and single councillor wards are permitted where such a ward includes an inhabited island.[7] For these elections wards represented by one, two or five councillors will only be contested in the four council areas in which ward boundaries have been redrawn after 2017, namely Na h-Eileanan an Iar, North Ayrshire, Orkney and Shetland.

Overall, the 32 local authorities had one one-seat district (Arran), seven two-seat districts and three five-seat districts (North Ayrshire) in addition to the bulk of the members elected in three and four seat districts.

All registered electors (British citizens and all other foreign nationals with leave to remain, including refugees)[8] who are aged 16 or over on polling day are entitled to vote in the local elections.[9] A person who has two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) can register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, and can vote in the local elections for the two different local councils.[10]

Individuals must have been registered to vote by midnight on 18 April 2022. The deadlines to register for a postal vote and proxy vote were 19 and 26 April 2022, respectively.[11]

Results

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Summary of the May 2022 Scottish council election results
Party First-preference votes Councils Seats
Count Of total (%) Change Count Change Count Of total (%) Change
SNP 633,251 34.1% Increase 1.8% 1 Increase 1 453 37.0% Increase 22
Labour 403,243 21.7% Increase 1.6% 1 Increase 1 282 23.1% Increase 20
Conservative 364,824 19.6% Decrease 5.7% 0 Steady 214 17.5% Decrease 62
Independents 156,751 8.4% Decrease 2.0% 3 Steady 149 12.2% Decrease 19
Liberal Democrats 159,815 8.6% Increase 1.7% 0 Steady 87 7.1% Increase 20
Green 110,791 6.0% Increase 1.9% 0 Steady 35 2.9% Increase 16
West Dunbartonshire Community 1,462 0.1% Steady 0 Steady 1 0.1% Steady
BUP 859 0.1% Steady 0 Steady 1 0.1% Increase 1
Rubbish 787 0.0% Steady 0 Steady 1 0.1% Steady
Alba 12,335 0.7% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Scottish Family 6,857 0.4% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Scottish Socialist 1,058 0.1% Increase 0.1% 0 Steady 0 0.0% Steady
TUSC 1,022 0.1% Steady 0 Steady 0 0.0% Steady
Independence for Scotland 742 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Libertarian 698 0.0% Steady 0 Steady 0 0.0% Steady
Freedom Alliance 555 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Volt UK 421 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Socialist Labour 381 0.0% Steady 0 Steady 0 0.0% Steady
UKIP 372 0.0% Decrease 0.2% 0 Steady 0 0.0% Steady
Women's Equality 228 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Social Democratic 222 0.0% Steady 0 Steady 0 0.0% Steady
Sovereignty 154 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Communist 119 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Pensioner's 75 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Vanguard 74 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Workers 61 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Scottish Eco-Federalist 24 0.0% New 0 Steady 0 0.0% New
Vacant seats — 3 0.0% Increase 3
No overall control — 27 Decrease 2 —
Total 1,857,181 100.0 Steady 32 Steady 1,226 100.00 Steady

Councils

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Council 2017 2022 Article
Largest party Control Largest party Control
Aberdeen City SNP Lab, Con + Ind coalition SNP SNP + Lib Dem coalition Details
Aberdeenshire Conservative Con, Lib Dem + Ind coalition Conservative Con, Lib Dem + Ind coalition Details
Angus SNP + Ind Ind, Con + Lib Dem coalition SNP SNP minority Details
Argyll and Bute SNP Ind, Con + Lib Dem coalition SNP Con, Ind + Lib Dem coalition Details
Clackmannanshire SNP SNP minority SNP SNP minority Details
Dumfries and Galloway Conservative SNP + Lab coalition Conservative SNP, Lab, Ind + Lib Dem coalition Details
Dundee City SNP SNP minority SNP SNP majority Details
East Ayrshire SNP SNP minority SNP SNP minority Details
East Dunbartonshire SNP Con + Lib Dem coalition SNP SNP minority Details
East Lothian Labour Labour minority Labour Labour minority Details
East Renfrewshire Conservative SNP, Lab + Ind coalition SNP Lab + Ind coalition Details
City of Edinburgh SNP SNP + Lab coalition SNP Labour minority Details
Falkirk SNP SNP + Ind coalition SNP SNP minority Details
Fife SNP SNP + Lab coalition SNP Labour minority Details
Glasgow City SNP SNP minority SNP SNP minority Details
Highland Independent Ind, Lib Dem + Lab coalition SNP SNP + Ind coalition Details
Inverclyde Labour Labour minority Labour Labour minority Details
Midlothian Labour Labour minority SNP SNP minority Details
Moray SNP SNP minority Conservative Conservative minority Details
Na h-Eileanan Siar Independent Independent majority Independent Independent majority Details
North Ayrshire Lab + SNP Labour minority SNP SNP minority Details
North Lanarkshire SNP Labour minority SNP SNP minority Details
Orkney Islands Independent Independent majority Independent Ind + Green coalition Details
Perth and Kinross Conservative Conservative minority SNP SNP minority Details
Renfrewshire SNP SNP minority SNP SNP minority Details
Scottish Borders Conservative Con + Ind coalition Conservative Con + Ind coalition Details
Shetland Islands Independent Independent majority Independent Independent majority Details
South Ayrshire Conservative SNP, Lab + Ind coalition Conservative Conservative minority Details
South Lanarkshire SNP SNP minority SNP Lab, Lib Dem + Ind coalition Details
Stirling SNP + Con SNP + Lab coalition SNP Labour minority Details
West Dunbartonshire SNP SNP + Ind coalition Labour Labour majority Details
West Lothian SNP Labour minority SNP Labour minority Details

Opinion polling

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First preference voting intention
Date(s)
conducted 		Polling organisation/client Sample size SNP Con Lab Lib Dem Green Alba Others
29 Apr – 3 May 2022 Survation 893 41% 17% 23% 8% 5% 1% 4%
24–28 Mar 2022 Survation/Ballot Box Scotland 1,002 44% 18% 23% 6% 3% 1% 4%
20–26 Oct 2021 Panelbase/Scot Goes Pop 1,001 45% 22% 21% 6% 4% 2% <1%
4 May 2017 2017 Scottish local elections 1,889,658 32.30% 25.30% 20.16% 6.82% 4.1% - 10.4%

See also

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Notes

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References

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  1. ^ a b Clark, Alistair (9 May 2022). "Scottish Local Government Elections 2022: The Need for a Long View". Holyrood. Retrieved 13 May 2022.
  2. ^ "Dundee election results 2022: SNP take overall control of city council". BBC News. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  3. ^ "Scottish council elections 2022: SNP finishes as biggest party". BBC News. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  4. ^ "Scottish election results 2022: Tories blame Partygate for 'disappointing' result". BBC News. 6 May 2022. Retrieved 7 May 2022.
  5. ^ "2019 Reviews of Electoral Arrangements | Scottish Boundary Commission". boundaries.scot. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  6. ^ "Electoral Arrangements Regulations" (PDF). Scottish Parliament. Archived (PDF) from the original on 1 October 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  7. ^ "News Release: Final Proposals for Na h-Eileanan an Iar, Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands council areas submitted to Scottish Ministers" (PDF) (Press release). Boundaries Scotland. 28 May 2021. Retrieved 5 January 2022.
  8. ^ "Right to vote extended". gov.scot. 20 February 2020. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
  9. ^ Uberoi, Elise; Johnston, Neil (19 November 2020). "Voting age". Commons Library. Retrieved 10 January 2022.
  10. ^ Electoral Commission. "I have two homes. Can I register at both addresses?". electoralcommission.org.uk. The Electoral Commission. Archived from the original on 15 November 2008. Retrieved 24 April 2017.
  11. ^ "Scotland council elections 2022: A really simple guide". BBC News. 28 March 2022. Retrieved 4 April 2022.
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