Next Local Government Elections

'I have seen seven Labour party leaders during my time, and this is the worst situation that I have ever seen the party in. We feel that Tony Blair has been pushing American interests rather than the world interest. The concern is that he is now no longer representing the Labour party.' Cllr Allister Mackie, Deputy Provost of West Lothian Council, 12 th March 2003.

Unitary Council Elections 2002

The next elections for the 29 mainland councils and the 3 island authorities should have been held in May 2002, three years after the last elections. However, the Scottish Executive decided to increase the term to 4 years instead of 3 and hold the elections at the same time as the Scottish Parliamentary elections, on 1 st May 2003. They claim, quite correctly, that this will increase turnout.

However, any voter fatigue argument is completely spurious. We now have Scottish Parliamentary elections, but we no longer have two tier councils so the number of elections remains the same.

There is, of course, a hidden agenda. If the last elections are anything to go by, local issues will not be discussed at at and the election will be dominated by nationwide issues. This of course will suit the administrations of certain councils who would prefer to be relelected without any public discussion of the way they have been running local services etc etc.

Ironically, Labour's electoral tinkering appears to have back-fired with only 14 % of Scots supporting action against Iraq without the backing of the UN.

• Draft Local Government (Timing of Elections) (Scotland) Bill

• Labour face council loss

• Labour heads for by-election woes, says survey

• It's not all cut-and-dried for Labour in the battle to gain control of Scotland's councils

• 1999 Results

• 1995 Results

• Local Government by-elections since 1995

• Local Government election maps