Was 2007 a fair result?
Multi party politics
2
“No Scottish party had the
support of anything like a
majority of voters, and as a
consequence no party has
anything approaching a
majority of the seats. If the
First-Past-the-Post system,
which we still use in electing
MPs, had been used it is
likely that one party would
have won an outright
majority of seats in spite of
having the support of little
more than 30% of voters.”
The SNP won the election by the closest of margins.
Ken Ritchie, Chief
Executive, Electoral Reform
Society
Results
SNP
Lab
Con
Lib-Dem
Greens
Ind (Margo
MacDonald)
% age of Constituency
vote
32.9
32.2
16.6
16.2
% age of Regional List
vote
31
29.2
13.9
11.3
2.8
6.7
Constituency MSPs
21
37
4
11
0
0
Regional List MSPs
26
9
13
5
2
1
First Minister Alex Salmond, Depute First Minister Nicola Sturgeon
Unlike Labour in 1999 and 2003, the SNP was unable to find a coalition partner (the Lib Dems refused
to enter into a formal coalition due to the SNP’s desire to hold a referendum on the issue of
independence).
The SNP, therefore, is a minority Government. It has had to govern on an “issue by issue” basis,
seeking to pass legislation by winning the support of a majority of MSPs.
A Minority Scottish Government
Note the change of name from “Scottish Executive” to Scottish Government in August 2007. This was a
shrewd political move by Alex Salmond to shift the mindset of the Scottish people towards greater
independence.
If we already have a Scottish Government is an independent Scottish Government so scary?
Alex Salmond has trimmed the Government down from nine departments to six.
Good for small parties?
It is something of a myth that the
AMS is “good for small parties”. It
depends on how popular they are.
In this election the increase in
support for the SNP squeezed out
parties such as the Greens, the
Scottish Socialist Party and the
Scottish citizens Unity party who
had won seats before.
The Greens hung on in there with 2
seats, but the others all lost their
representation.
The feud between the SSP and
Tommy Sheridans’ breakaway
party, Solidarity, no doubt damaged
their chances too.
Good for the Conservatives!
Arguably, the creation of the Scottish Parliament with
its AMS, saved the Scottish Conservatives from
political extinction.
It is one of the great ironies of Scottish politics that
the Conservatives originally opposed both the
Scottish Parliament, and its voting system!
In 1999, all 18 of the Conservatives MSPs were from
the second, List vote. There were none elected from
the FPTP constituencies
In 2003, the Conservatives managed to have three
MSPs elected from constituencies, but the other
fifteen were from the second, List vote.
In 2007, Only four of the 17 Conservative seats are
from FPTP constituencies.
A fair result?
If FPTP was used to elect the
Scottish Parliament, Labour
would have won 37 out of the 73
seats (50.1% of all the seats),
enjoyed a single seat majority
over all the other parties
combined, and had 16 more
MSPs than the SNP
You can see why Labour doesn’t
like the AMS!
Unrepresented voters?
There are some voters in
Scotland who, because of the
AMS, are completely
unrepresented.
For example, if you voted
Labour in Falkirk West (11,292
did), you would have nobody to
represent your views: your
Constituency MSP would be a
Nationalist, (Michael Matheson,
left)
Michael Matheson MSP,
SNP, Falkirk West.
There are no Labour List MSPs
in Central Scotland despite 112,
596 people voting Labour.
Unelected MSPs?
In June 2007, SNP MSP Stefan Tymkewycz stood
down as an MSP just months after being elected
to Holyrood.
He was replaced by Shirley-Anne Somerville as a
Lothians list MSP. While Shirley-Anne Somerville
may well be an excellent MSP, the fact remains
that she, personally, was not elected by the voters
of the Lothians!
The same is the case with the SNP’s Anne
McLaughlin who replaced Bashir ahmad as
Glasgow list MSP when he died in 2009.
June 2007.The SNP’s
Stefan Tymkewycz
stands down.
So Shirley-Anne Somerville
replaces him!
The Scottish Parliament’s voting system does not
allow for by-elections for List MSPs but it does for
constituency MSPs.
Diversity?
The AMS, in theory, is supposed to encourage a more diverse group of representatives to be elected.
There are more female representatives than at Westminster, but there are no BME representatives (Bashir Ahmad died
in 2009).
34% of Members of the Scottish Parliament are women - down from 39% during the Parliament's first session. Above,
Rosie Kane who, like all the other SSP MSPs, lost her seat in 2007.
11
Lost votes
In 2007, Scotland’s local authority elections
took place on the same day as the Scottish
Parliament elections. The council elections
use the STV system.
Many voters were confused by two different
voting systems being used on the same day.
Confusion also reigned over the “List” ballot
paper being placed to the left of the
constituency paper.
The SNP used this to their advantage by
cheekily placing “Alex Salmond for First
Minister” on the List ballot paper, gaining top
position alphabetically.
In several seats, none more so than in
Cunninghame North where the SNP’s Kenny
Gibson won by 48 votes, the number of spoilt
papers was higher than the winning
candidates’ majority.
The next Scottish parliament elections will
take place on May 5 2011.Scotland’s local
council elections will not place till 2012.
But, the referendum on changing the UK’s
voting system will take place on the same day
as the Scottish Parliament elections!
Minority Success: Prescription charges
Minority Government means that the
SNP Government can win some
parliamentary votes, lose some and
compromise on many.
But, perhaps this kind of debate and
accountability is more democratic?
The SNP Government does not need
legislation to pass all of its policies
First Minister Alex Salmond can use
his Executive powers to introduce
new policies e.g. the phased abolition
of prescription charges
Phased abolition of prescription charges
Minority Failure: The Council Tax Stays!
The SNP’s proposed
Local Income Tax has
been abandoned.
The opposition parties
refused to support it.
So, it’s back to the
drawing board.
Minority Deadlock: The Independence Referendum
Scotland’s three main Opposition parties are opposed to independence and also to having a
referendum on the matter.
Labour has 46 MSPs, the Conservatives have 17 and the Liberal Democrats 16..
This means that the SNP’s referendum plans can be easily outvoted unless one of the parties can be
won over.