The
2016 Scottish Parliament general election is due to be held on Thursday 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the
Scottish ParliamentThe Scottish Parliament is the devolved national, unicameral legislature of Scotland, located in the Holyrood area of the capital, Edinburgh. The Parliament, informally referred to as "Holyrood", is a democratically elected body comprising 129 members known as Members of the Scottish Parliament...
. It would be the fifth
general electionIn a parliamentary political system, a general election is an election in which all or most members of a given political body are chosen. The term is usually used to refer to elections held for a nation's primary legislative body, as distinguished from by-elections and local elections.The term...
since the devolved parliament was established in 1999.
Date
Under the
Scotland Act 1998The Scotland Act 1998 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It is the Act which established the devolved Scottish Parliament.The Act will be amended by the Scotland Bill 2011, if and when it receives royal assent.-History:...
, an ordinary general election to the Scottish Parliament would normally be held on the first Thursday in May four years after the
2011 electionThe 2011 Scottish Parliament general election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2011 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament.The election delivered the first majority government since the opening of Holyrood, a remarkable feat as the mixed member proportional representation system is used to...
, ie. in May 2015. However, in May 2010, the
new UK GovernmentDavid Cameron is Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, after being invited by Queen Elizabeth II to form a new government after the resignation as Prime Minister of Gordon Brown on 11 May 2010. Leading a coalition government formed by the Conservative Party and the Liberal Democrats, the coalition...
stated in the
coalition agreementThe Conservative – Liberal Democrat Coalition Agreement was a policy document drawn up following the 2010 general election in the United Kingdom...
that the
next United Kingdom general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2010 was held on Thursday 6 May 2010 to elect members to the House of Commons. The election took place in 650 constituencies across the United Kingdom under the first-past-the-post system. None of the parties achieved the 326 seats needed for an overall majority...
would also be held in May 2015. This proposal was criticised by the Scottish National Party and Labour, as it had been recommended after the
2007 electionThe 2007 Scottish Parliament election was held on Thursday 3 May 2007 to elect members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the third general election to the devolved Scottish Parliament since it was created in 1999...
that elections with different voting systems should be held on separate days; a recommendation which all of the political parties had then accepted. In response to this criticism, Deputy Prime Minister
Nick CleggNicholas William Peter "Nick" Clegg is a British Liberal Democrat politician who is currently the Deputy Prime Minister, Lord President of the Council and Minister for Constitutional and Political Reform in the coalition government of which David Cameron is the Prime Minister...
offered the right to vary the date of the Scottish Parliament election by a year either way. All the main political parties then stated their support for delaying the election by a year.
The date of the poll may be varied by up to one month either way by the
monarchThe monarchy of the United Kingdom is the constitutional monarchy of the United Kingdom and its overseas territories. The present monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, has reigned since 6 February 1952. She and her immediate family undertake various official, ceremonial and representational duties...
, on the proposal of the
Presiding OfficerThe Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament is the speaker of the Scottish Parliament, elected by the Members of the Scottish Parliament, by means of an exhaustive ballot. He or she also heads the Corporate Body of the Scottish Parliament and as such is viewed as a figurehead for the entire...
.
If Parliament itself resolves that it should be dissolved, with at least two-thirds of the Members (ie. 86 Members) voting in favour, the Presiding Officer proposes a date for an extraordinary general election and the Parliament is dissolved by the monarch by royal proclamation.
It does not necessarily require a two-thirds majority to precipitate an extraordinary general election, because under the Scotland Act Parliament is also dissolved if it fails to nominate one of its members to be
First MinisterThe First Minister of Scotland is the political leader of Scotland and head of the Scottish Government. The First Minister chairs the Scottish Cabinet and is primarily responsible for the formulation, development and presentation of Scottish Government policy...
within certain time limits, irrespective of whether at the beginning or in the middle of a parliamentary term. Therefore, if the First Minister resigned, Parliament would then have 28 days to elect a successor (s46(2)b and s46(3)a). If no new First Minister is elected then the Presiding Officer would ask for Parliament to be dissolved under s3(1)a. This process could also be triggered if the First Minister lost a vote of confidence by a
simple majorityA majority is a subset of a group consisting of more than half of its members. This can be compared to a plurality, which is a subset larger than any other subset; i.e. a plurality is not necessarily a majority as the largest subset may consist of less than half the group's population...
(ie. more than 50%), as he must then resign (Scotland Act 1998 s45(2)). To date the Parliament has never held a confidence vote on a First Minister.
No extraordinary general elections have been held to date. Any extraordinary general elections would be in addition to ordinary general elections, unless held less than six months before the due date of an ordinary general election, in which case they supplant it. The subsequent ordinary general election reverts to the first Thursday in May, a multiple of four years after 1999.
2011 results
The table below shows the figures for seats won by each party at the 2011 election. In the days after the 2011 election, which resulted in an SNP overall majority,
Iain GrayIain Gray is a Scottish politician and the Leader of Scottish Labour Party Opposition in the Scottish Parliament. Gray was elected as the Member of the Scottish Parliament for the East Lothian constituency in 2007 having previously represented Edinburgh Pentlands from 1999 to 2003.-Background and...
,
Annabel GoldieAnnabel MacNicoll Goldie is a Scottish Conservative Member of the Scottish Parliament for the West of Scotland Region. She was the Leader of the Scottish Conservative Party in the Scottish Parliament from 2005 until 2011....
and
Tavish ScottTavish Hamilton Scott MSP is a Scottish politician and MSP for Shetland. He was Leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats from 2008 to 2011...
resigned as leaders of the
Scottish Labour PartyThe Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
, Scottish Conservative Party and
Scottish Liberal DemocratsThe Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats; the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrats in England...
respectively.
| Party | Constituency Seats | Regional Seats | Total Seats |
| SNP The Scottish National Party is a social-democratic political party in Scotland which campaigns for Scottish independence from the United Kingdom....
|
53 |
16 |
69 |
LabourThe Scottish Labour Party is the section of the British Labour Party which operates in Scotland....
|
15 |
22 |
37 |
| Conservative |
3 |
12 |
15 |
Liberal DemocratThe Scottish Liberal Democrats are one of the three state parties within the federal Liberal Democrats; the others being the Welsh Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Democrats in England...
|
2 |
3 |
5 |
| Scottish Green The Scottish Green Party is a green party in Scotland. It has two MSPs in the devolved Scottish Parliament, Alison Johnstone, representing Lothian, and Patrick Harvie, for Glasgow.-Organisation:...
|
0 |
2 |
2 |
| Margo McDonald |
0 |
1 |
1 |
| Totals |
73 |
56 |
129 |
Election system, seats, and regions
The total number of Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) elected to the Parliament is 129.
The First Periodical Review of the
Scottish Parliament's constituencies and regionsScottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament , created by the Scotland Act 1998....
by the Boundary Commission for Scotland, was announced on 3 July 2007. The Commission published its provisional proposals for the regional boundaries in 2009.
The Scottish Parliament uses an Additional Members System, designed to produce approximate
proportional representationProportional representation is a concept in voting systems used to elect an assembly or council. PR means that the number of seats won by a party or group of candidates is proportionate to the number of votes received. For example, under a PR voting system if 30% of voters support a particular...
for each region. There are 8 regions each sub-divied into smaller constituencies. There are a total of 73
constituenciesScottish Parliament constituencies and regions were first used in 1999, in the first general election of the Scottish Parliament , created by the Scotland Act 1998....
. Each constituency elects one (MSP) by the
pluralityThe plurality voting system is a single-winner voting system often used to elect executive officers or to elect members of a legislative assembly which is based on single-member constituencies...
(first past the post) system of election. Each region elects 7 additional member MSPs using a
additional memberMixed-member proportional representation, also termed mixed-member proportional voting and commonly abbreviated to MMP, is a voting system originally used to elect representatives to the German Bundestag, and nowadays adopted by numerous legislatures around the world...
system.
A modified
D'Hondt methodThe d'Hondt method is a highest averages method for allocating seats in party-list proportional representation. The method described is named after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt who described it in 1878...
, using the constituency results, is used to calculate which additional member MSPs the regions elect.
The Scottish Parliament constituencies have not been coterminous with
Scottish Westminster constituenciesScottish Westminster constituencies were Scottish constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain, normally at the Palace of Westminster, from 1708 to 1801, and have been constituencies of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, also at Westminster,...
since the
2005 general electionThe United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
, when the 72 former Westminster constituencies were replaced with a new set of 59, generally larger, constituencies (see
Scottish Parliament (Constituencies) Act 2004The Scottish Parliament Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that amends the Scotland Act 1998 which established the Scottish Parliament....
). The boundaries used for the Scottish Parliament elections were then revised for the 2011 election. The Boundary Commission also recommended changes to the electoral regions used to elect "list" members of the Scottish Parliament, which were also implemented in 2011.
Top target seats of the main parties
Below are listed all the constituencies which required a
swingAn Electoral Swing Analysis shows the extent of change in voter support from one election to another. It can be used as a means of comparison between individual candidates or political parties for a given electoral region or demographic....
of less than 5% from the 2011 result to change hands.
SNP targets
| Rank |
Constituency |
Winning party 2011 |
Swing to gain |
SNP's place 2011 |
Result |
| 1 |
East LothianEast Lothian is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
0.24 |
2nd |
|
| 2 |
Greenock & InverclydeGreenock and Inverclyde is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
0.91 |
2nd |
|
| 3 |
Edinburgh Northern & Leith
|
0.97 |
2nd |
|
| 4 |
Motherwell & WishawMotherwell and Wishaw is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.21 |
2nd |
|
| 5 |
Uddingston & Bellshill Uddingston and Bellshill is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It will elect one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.43 |
2nd |
|
| 6 |
Galloway & West Dumfries Galloway and West Dumfries is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.44 |
2nd |
|
| 7 |
AyrAyr is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.67 |
2nd |
|
| 8 |
Glasgow PollokGlasgow Pollok is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.36 |
2nd |
|
| 9 |
Cowdenbeath Cowdenbeath is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
2.43 |
2nd |
|
| 10 |
DumbartonDumbarton is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
2.87 |
2nd |
|
| 11 |
Glasgow Maryhill & Springburn Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It will elect one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
3.15 |
2nd |
|
| 12 |
Rutherglen Rutherglen is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
3.28 |
2nd |
|
| 13 |
Renfrewshire South Renfrewshire South is a constituency of the devolved Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
4.81 |
2nd |
|
Conservative targets
| Rank |
Constituency |
Winning party 2011 |
Swing to gain |
Con place 2011 |
Result |
| 1 |
Edinburgh PentlandsEdinburgh Pentlands is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
2.93 |
2nd |
|
| 2 |
EastwoodEastwood is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
3.16 |
2nd |
|
| 3 |
Dumfriesshire Dumfriesshire is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
4.97 |
2nd |
|
Labour targets
| Rank |
Constituency |
Winning party 2011 |
Swing to gain |
Labour's place 2011 |
Result |
| 1 |
Glasgow AnnieslandGlasgow Anniesland is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
0.02 |
2nd |
|
| 2 |
KirkcaldyKirkcaldy is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
0.33 |
2nd |
|
| 3 |
Edinburgh Central Edinburgh Central is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
0.41 |
2nd |
|
| 4 |
Paisley Paisley is a new constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It will elect one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
0.49 |
2nd |
|
| 5 |
Dunfermline For earlier results see Dunfermline West.Dunfermline is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election....
|
1.01 |
2nd |
|
| 6 |
Edinburgh Southern Edinburgh Southern is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.03 |
2nd |
|
| 7 |
Aberdeen CentralAberdeen Central is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election and is one of nine constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region...
|
1.23 |
2nd |
|
| 8 |
Clydebank & MilngavieClydebank and Milngavie is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
1.26 |
2nd |
| 9 |
Glasgow ShettlestonGlasgow Shettleston is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.39 |
2nd |
|
| 10 |
Glasgow KelvinGlasgow Kelvin is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
1.80 |
2nd |
|
| 11 |
Strathkelvin & BearsdenStrathkelvin and Bearsden is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election...
|
2.67 |
2nd |
|
| 12 |
Renfrewshire North & West Renfrewshire North and West is a constituency of the devolved Scottish Parliament located in the historic county of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands. It was first created for the 2011 elections...
|
2.85 |
2nd |
|
| 13 |
Glasgow CathcartGlasgow Cathcart is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
3.04 |
2nd |
|
| 14 |
East KilbrideEast Kilbride is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
3.26 |
2nd |
|
| 15 |
Edinburgh Eastern Edinburgh Eastern is a proposed constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It will elect one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
3.64 |
2nd |
|
| 16 |
Airdrie and Shotts Airdrie and Shotts is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
4.19 |
2nd |
|
| 17 |
Hamilton, Larkhall & Stonehouse Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
4.37 |
2nd |
|
| 18 |
Carrick, Cumnock & Doon Valley Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Scotland. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
4.50 |
2nd |
|
Liberal Democrat targets
| Rank |
Constituency |
Winning party 2011 |
Swing to gain |
LD's place 2011 |
Result |
| 1 |
Edinburgh Southern Edinburgh Southern is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
2.45 |
3rd |
|
| 2 |
Edinburgh Western Edinburgh Western is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament . It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the plurality method of election...
|
4.02 |
2nd |
|
| 3 |
North East Fife
|
4.37 |
2nd |
|
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