Local By-elections

'The reason why so many of my colleagues hate the Liberal Democrats is that much of Liberal Democrat conduct in particular situations had been scurrilous and outrageous and people are offended, rightly so, by that. ' Home Office Minister Charles Clarke, 27 th October 2000.

Murtle (City of Aberdeen) 2 nd November 2000

The Liberal Democrats were breathing a sigh of relief when they held on to their Murtle ward on Aberdeen Council despite a strong challenge from the Conservatives.

Aberdeen has seen major changes politically in the past few years. While the Aberdeen North parliamentary constituency has been solid Labour, Aberdeen South has see-sawed between Labour and the Tories. It was won in 1966 by Donald Dewar but he lost it back to the Tories in 1970. The Tories hung on until 1987, until the seat was won by Labour, but the Tories won it back again in 1992. In 1997, there were major boundary changes and a third seat, Aberdeen Central, was added, all three Aberdeen seats being won by Labour. However, in the 1999 Scottish General election, the tide turned against Labour. Liberal Democrat Nicol Stephen won the three-way marginal of Aberdeen South, while Scottish National Party Cllr Brian Adam came within 398 votes of winning Aberdeen North, where Labour had obtained a majority of 10,010 at the Westminster election.

With the exception of 1998-1992 when there was no overall control, Labour has controlled Aberdeen since at least 1980. After local government re-organisation, Labour obtained a clear majority in the new City of Aberdeen authority, winning 30 seats compared to 10 for the Liberal Democrats, nine for the Tories and one for the Scottish National Party.

There were major boundary changes in Aberdeen for the 1999 council elections, and the number of wards was reduced from 50 to 43. Matching its poor performance in the Scottish General election, Labour fell back badly in Aberdeen, almost losing control of the Council (indeed the Scotsman did report, incorrectly, that Aberdeen had gone to No Overall Control). In fact, Labour won 22 wards, compared to 12 for the Lib Dems, 6 for the Tories and three for the SNP. This allowed Labour to retain overall control of Aberdeen with a razor-thin majority of one.

While Labour will be thankful that this by-election is not in one of their wards, they do not stand to gain by it. In 1995, Murtle was won by Liberal Democrat John Stephenson with 831 votes (56.0 %), 345 ahead of Conservative Gordon Adams with 486 (32.7%). The SNP's Graeme Smith was third with 105 votes (7.1 %) and Labour's Rhonda Domeracki came fourth with 63 (4.2 %).

In 1999, John Stephenson retained the new Murtle ward, with a slightly reduced majority of 302. However, the turnout was up and the Lib Dem vote had fallen by 9.2 %, with the Tories up 2.5 %, the SNP down 0.2 % and Labour up by 6.8 %, winning third place in the ward.

In the by-election, the ward was retianed by Matthew Duncan for the Lib Dems with a majority of 112 over the Tories, down from 302 in May 1999. The ward was extremely closely contested by the two parties and in the event the Lib Dems increased their vote by 3.4 % to take 735 votes (50.2 %).

The Tories managed to increased their vote by 7.4 % on last May taking 623 votes (42.6 %).

The other two parties saw their votes squeezed with the SNP taking 4.2 %, down 2.7 % on May 1999, and Labour being beaten back into fourth place with just 2.9 % of the vote, 8.1 % down on last year.

The turnout was 35.0 %.

The Lib Dem by-election hold in Murtle leaves the composition of Aberdeen City Council unchanged at 22 Labour, 12 Lib Dem, six Conservatives and 2 SNP.

Electronic vote tested

From the Scotsman 2 nd November 2000

Developed by Aberdeen City Council, it has been designed to drag voting into the 21st century, according to senior election officer Dave Harris. He said: "The voting system itself hasn't changed in 100 or so years and all we're trying to do is use technology to make the administration of elections easier."

The equipment will be used in the by-election for the Murtle ward in tandem with a manual vote.

Murtle (City of Aberdeen) - ward 31

2 nd November 2000				6 th May 1999
Matthew Duncan		735	50.2 %	John Stephenson		1,213	46.8 %
		623	42.6 %	Margaret Stewart		911	35.2 %
		62	4.2 %	William Coull		286	11.0 %
		43	2.9 %	Graeme Raitt		180	6.9 %
LibDem hold	LibDem maj.	112	7.7 %	LibDem win	LibDem maj.	302	11.7 %