Local Government By-elections

'Only the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party stands unequivocally for the interests, integrity and independence of Scotland'.
Michael Forsyth's 'Denounciation of Arbroath', 30 th January 1996.

Laurmont East (Falkirk) 17 th August 1995

Laurmont East in Falkirk was not a by-election as such but a re-run of a previous election which was declared void.

In April, the Conservatives beat Labour by one vote in Laurmont East. However, two Labour votes which had been unfranked were disallowed. The story was reported in the Scotsman

Labour condemns ballot blunder

By John Smith in the Scotsman 8 th April 1995

Labour is considering mounting a legal challenge over a Falkirk result where its candidate lost to the Conservative by one vote after two papers in her favour were rejected because they were unfranked.

Party officials locally are furious that what they labelled as 'incompetence' and an out-dated system had cost Moira Fitzpatrick the Laurmont (East) ward, which centres on Polmont.

There were five recounts in the four-cornered contest before Frank Hodge was declared the winner with 428 votes to Mrs Fitzpatrick's 427.

Esther Fowler, who chairs Labour's temporary local government committee for the new Falkirk unitary authority, said yesterday she was seeking advice from the Scottish Labour Party over whether or not a judicial review should be sought. Mrs Fowler said that she had made the party's concerns known in no uncertain terms yesterday to Bob Jack, Central region's director of administration, the returning officer for the Falkirk elections.

She said she had asked him to ensure there was a full investigation, and that whoever was responsible for the blunders should not be employed at any future elections. Mrs Fowler said that it seemed 'daft' in an age of high technology that some system cold not be put in place which would alert staff if a paper had not been franked.

Douglas Sinclair, returning officer for Central region, said yesterday that the legislation was quite clear - unfranked ballot papers could not be accepted under the law.

Mr Sinclair, the region's chief executive added 'It's regretable that this has happened, but mistakes do occur due to human error.' He added that the total number of unfranked papers at this election throughout Central was less than the previous region-wide elections - 44 in just over 100,000 votes.

Mrs Fitzpatrick was unavailable for comment yesterday.

Mr Hodge said that he sympathised with his opponent's emotions over the manner in which she lost.

The following information was kindly supplied by Colin Gray, who obtained it from Mr. P. Reid, Support Services Manager in the Law and Administration Department at Falkirk Council. I am grateful to Mr Gray for correcting the misconception that Labour had in fact won the re-run of the Laurmont East election. (We reported the Conservative vote as 521 instead of 721 and were unaware of the Independent candidate.)

The election held on 6 April 1995 for Electoral Ward 34 (Laurmont East) of Falkirk Council, resulted in the following declaration:

Francis Hodge (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party) 428
Moira Fitzpatrick (Scottish Labour Party) 427
Gordon Hughes (Scottish National Party) 365
Ronald McArthur (Scottish Liberal Democrat Party Candidate) 71
The majority of Francis Hodge was 1 vote, and the percentage poll was 40.9%.

There was a total of 4 rejected ballot papers, all for "want of official mark".

It transpired that 2 of the rejected papers contained otherwise good votes for the Labour candidate, Moira Fitzpatrick, and the other 2 rejected papers contained otherwise good votes for the SNP candidate, Gordon Hughes. Therefore the result would have been:

Moira Fitzpatrick (Scottish Labour Party) 429
Francis Hodge (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party) 428
Gordon Hughes (Scottish National Party) 367
Ronald McArthur (Scottish Liberal Democrat Party Candidate) 71

if the staff of the Returning Officer had carried out their duties correctly and marked all ballot papers with the official mark.

An election petition was brought on behalf of Moira Fitzpatrick asking for the election to be declared void. This was allowed by the Sheriff Principal during a hearing at Falkirk on 14 June 1995, when it was declared that Francis Hodge had not been duly elected for the Laurmont East ward and that the Returning Officer must arrange for a further election to be held.

The re-election took place on 17 August 1995 with the following result: Francis Hodge (Scottish Conservative Party) 721
Moira Fitzpatrick (Scottish Labour Party Candidate) 527
Diana Williamson (Scottish National Party SNP) 400
James Johnston (Independent) 46
Ronald McArthur (Scottish Liberal Democrat Candidate) 32

The majority for Francis Hodge was therefore 194 votes, and there was a significantly higher percentage poll of 54.6%.

There was only 1 rejected ballot paper, due to "writing or mark by which voter could be identified".

Laurmont East

17 th August 1995				6 th April 1995
Francis Hodge		721	41.8 %	Francis Hodge		428	33.2 %
Moira Fitzpatrick		527	30.5 %	Moira Fitzpatrick		427	33.1 %
Diana Williamson		400	23.2 %	Gordon Hughes		365	28.3 %
James Johnston	Ind	46	2.7 %	Ronald McArthur		71	5.5 %
Ronald McArthur		32	1.8 %
Con hold	Con maj.	194	11.2 %	Con gain	Con maj.	1	0.1 %

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