1992 Scottish local elections

Local elections were held in Scotland in May 1992, to elect members to all 53 district councils. It was the last local election held under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which had established the two-tier system of regions and districts. Regional and district councils were abolished in 1996, and replaced with 29 new mainland unitary authorities under the terms of the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994.

1992 Scottish local elections
1992 (1992)
  First party Second party
 
Leader Neil Kinnock John Major
Party Labour Conservative
Leader since 2 October 1983 28 November 1990
Seats won 468 204
Seat change 85 42
Percentage 34.0% 23.2%
  Third party Fourth party
 
Leader Alex Salmond Jim Wallace
Party SNP Liberal Democrats
Leader since 22 September 1990 18 April 1992
Seats won 150 94
Seat change 37 10
Percentage 24.3% 9.5%
Colours denote the winning party with outright control

Overview

Background

There was some speculation that these elections would be the last under the present two-tier system, as a review of council areas had been announced by the incumbent Conservative Government (The last elections were in fact the 1994 regional elections). The elections were seen as a test of the Conservative Government elected a month before in April, where the Conservatives has increased their vote share, much to the surprise of pollsters.

Outcome

The election saw a decrease in turnout of more than 5%, the lowest since District Council elections were introduced in 1974. The number of women candidates increased to 26.7%, although only 21.5% of elected councillors were women, showing that the main parties often preferred to nominate men in wards where they had a better chance of winning. Labour saw a sharp fall on their vote share, down 8.5% from 1988. The main beneficiaries of this decline were the Conservatives, up 3.8%, but still in third place behind the SNP, who gained 3.0%. The Liberal Democrats also made modest gains, taking a new record of 95 seats.

Labour held most of their strongholds in the central belt, as well as Dundee and Aberdeen; even though their vote share decreased more in these areas (Such as East Lothian, down 13% from 1988 and Glasgow, down 11.8%) than elsewhere. The Conservatives were most successful in places were they hadn't stood many (if any) candidates before, such as Clackmannan (where the party only stood two candidates in 1988). Independents remained the largest party in rural areas, while the Liberal Democrats held their two councils of North East Fife and Annandale and Eskdale.[1]

National results

Summary of the 1992 Scottish district council election results[2]

 
Votes Total Votes % Seats
Labour 504,076 34.0 468
SNP 360,014 24.3 150
Conservative 343,358 23.2 204
Liberal Democrats 140,697 9.5 94
Independent 107,586 7.4 228
Other 26,057 1.9 14
Total 1,481,788 n/a 1158

Results by council area

Borders
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Berwickshire Conservative Conservative Details
Ettrick and Lauderdale Independent Independent Details
Roxburgh Independent Independent Details
Tweeddale Independent Independent Details

Central
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Clackmannan Labour Labour Details
Falkirk Labour No overall control Details
Stirling Labour No overall control Details

Dumfries and Galloway
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Annandale and Eskdale Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats Details
Wigtown Independent Independent Details
Nithsdale Labour No overall control Details
Stewartry Independent Independent Details

Fife
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Dunfermline Labour Labour Details
Kirkcaldy Labour Labour Details
North-East Fife Liberal Democrats Liberal Democrats Details

Grampian
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Banff and Buchan Independent Independent Details
City of Aberdeen No overall control Labour Details
Gordon No overall control Independent Details
Kincardine and Deeside Independent No overall control Details
Moray Independent No overall control Details

Highland
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Badenoch and Strathspey Independent Independent Details
Caithness Independent Independent Details
Inverness Independent No overall control Details
Lochaber Independent No overall control Details
Nairn Independent Independent Details
Ross and Cromarty Independent Independent Details
Skye and Lochalsh Independent Independent Details
Sutherland Independent Independent Details

Lothian
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
City of Edinburgh Labour No overall control Details
East Lothian Labour Labour Details
Midlothian Labour Labour Details
West Lothian Labour No overall control Details

Strathclyde
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Argyll and Bute Independent Independent Details
Bearsden and Milngavie Conservative No overall control Details
Cumbernauld and Kilsyth No overall control Labour Details
Clydebank Labour Labour Details
Clydesdale Labour No overall control Details
Cunninghame Labour Labour Details
Cumnock and Doon Valley Labour Labour Details
Dumbarton No overall control No overall control Details
East Kilbride Labour Labour Details
Eastwood Conservative Conservative Details
City of Glasgow Labour Labour Details
Hamilton Labour Labour Details
Inverclyde Labour Labour Details
Kilmarnock and Loudoun Labour No overall control Details
Kyle and Carrick Labour Conservative Details
Motherwell Labour Labour Details
Monklands Labour Labour Details
Renfrew Labour Labour Details
Strathkelvin Labour Labour Details

Tayside
Council 1988 result 1992 result Turnout Details
Angus SNP SNP Details
City of Dundee Labour Labour Details
Perth and Kinross No overall control Conservative Details
gollark: For lyricly.
gollark: Anyway, if the reminder's correct end date is known I can reschedule it on ABR, which does not have reminder deletion.
gollark: If ABR is given complete admin powers for the whole server at once, I can do r9k.
gollark: Well, significant mistrust.
gollark: Vague mistrust based on previous actions is not hate.

References
  1. "Scottish District Elections 1992" (PDF). Elections Centre. Retrieved 11 January 2020.
  2. Denver, David; Bochel, Hugh (Winter 2000), "The Forgotten Elections: The Scottish Council Elections of 1999", Scottish Affairs (PDF), 30, archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-10-03, retrieved 2011-07-16McConnell, Alan (2004), Scottish Local Government, Edinburgh University Press, ISBN 978-0-7486-2005-0
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.