Donald Macintyre and Colin Brown in the Independent (London), 14 th June 1994.
| 'The one setback to an otherwise resounding victory for Labour yesterday was the capture by the Scottish Nationalist (sic) Party of the seat for North East Scotland. The SNP secured a record share of 33 per cent of the Scottish vote.' Donald Macintyre and Colin Brown in the Independent (London), 14 th June 1994. | |
Thursday's contest follows the death in August of Mr Macartney, who won the seat in 1994.
If the government's European Parliament Elections Bill gets onto the statute books unamended, in future Euro-elections voters will not get to choose between individual candidates, but only to select a party's "slate" of candidates.
This is because the government wants to use a "closed list" system.
Once the list system of PR is in place, if an MEP resigns their seat or dies, instead of holding a by-election the next candidate on the party list at the time of the Euro-election will automatically take their place.
But it is still uncertain when PR for Euro-elections will come into effect. The government abandoned the Bill at the end of the last parliamentary session in the face of Tory-led opposition.
It is expected to be re-introduced soon now that the new session is under way, but the government says it must become law by mid-January to take effect in time for next June's Euro-elections.
Conservative Party leader William Hague has said his party will continue to oppose closed lists, and so the Bill may not make it through parliament in time.
Nationalists confident
The North East Scotland result is likely to be a close run between Labour and the SNP, but the Scottish Nationalists are confident about the chances of their candidate, Ian Hudghton, leader of Angus Council.
SNP spokesman Kevin Pringle told BBC News Online: "Turn-outs are traditionally low in European elections, especially by-elections.
"But we think the party who can get their supporters out to vote stands the best chance and we're pretty confident we've put in enough work."
Other candidates are Labour's Kathleen Walker, an officer with the GMB union, ex-Tory MP turned Liberal Democrat Keith Raffan, and Conservative Struan Stevenson.
A poll in the Scotsman put the SNP on 41%, Labour on 37%, the Conservatives on 14% and Liberal Democrats on 7%.
The North East Scotland seat has always been marginal. In 1984, the Tories held onto it, but lost it to Labour in 1989, who had a majority of 2,613.
"We were the first party to win with a reasonably-sized majority," said Mr Pringle.
Mr Macartney, an Open University tutor in political science, died of a heart attack.
The result of the contest will be announced on Friday.
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