2011 Inverness South Ward By-election
Dr Donald Boyd was the Scottish Christian Party candidate for Highland Council - Inverness South Ward By-election on Thursday 3/11/2011.
Donald is the Leader of the Scottish Christian Party and lives in Westhill, Inverness. He is a General Practitioner who has worked in General Medicine in Raigmore Hospital, the main hospital of the Highlands and Islands Region. He has been resident in Westhill for over 10 years, Inverness for over 20 years and Highland for over 30 years.
Donald fought a vigorous by-election campaign supported by his dedicated team, leafleting the homes in the ward by foot, bicycle, motorcycle and car. Since the 2007 Council election, the electorate in this Ward has grown from 7,287 to 9,760 voters, and continues to grow as Inverness continues to be the fastest growing city in the UK with a growing national profile.
As a Westhill Community Councillor, Donald was at the centre of the campaign for local democracy in which he co-ordinated a plenary meeting of seven community councils with Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Transport Scotland and Highland Council officials in Planning and Transport, Environmental and Community Services in the largest display of local democracy in recent times. He presented a win-win solution to a thorny transport issue for the landlocked new site for the University of the Highlands and Islands and continues to do so.
The SNP and the Lib Dems were locked in a poster war as the Lib Dems desperately sought to regain lost ground after the betrayal of students in their about-turn on students’ fees, and the betrayal of every consumer in their failed promises about no VAT increase. Each Party machine worked diligently for the two new candidates, with leaflets explaining their credentials but with no evidence of involvement in public debate. The Scottish Christian Party’s posters were clearly in evidence as the third campaigner, followed by very much fewer Tory and Green posters, but the Labour party had no posters, no leafletting, and a candidate who did not even appear at the Count. UKIP and the other smaller Parties did not stand, and there was one Independent candidate who was eliminated in the first round of voting.
Dr Donald Boyd would like to thank the enthusiastic team who helped at this election, and the team joins him to thank all those who prayed for and those who voted for a distinctly Christian Voice in the Highland Council.
The Inverness South Ward by-election was won by the Liberal Democrats who beat the SNP by 1091 votes to 1084 votes. The turnout was 26.8%.
Labour was third with 379 votes, the Conservatives were fourth with 339 votes, the Greens were fifth with 189 votes, the Scottish Christian Party was sixth with 130 votes and the Independent was seventh with 94 votes.
The Lib Dems beat the SNP by seven votes demonstrating that every vote counts. Those who failed to use their options in the Single Transferable Vote (STV) ballot lost out on the opportunity to influence the final outcome. This means that there are two Lib Dem candidates in this ward, just as they obtained two in the Inverness West Ward by-election in 2009. This time the Lib Dems scraped over the line by seven votes instead of their two to one majority in 2009. The SCP has learned much from this by-election. There were a good number of people who gave us their second and third votes, but we did not survive long enough to make use of these. The Greens were only 31 votes ahead of us, but when the Independent was eliminated in the first round, only four of his 94 votes were transferred to us while 13 were allocated to the Greens, so that we were next to be eliminated before most of the second and third votes could be allocated to us. This should show our supporters that it is better to put the Scottish Christian Party at number 1, for their second choice will certainly count if we are eliminated. The Greens were eliminated next. We were initially close to the Conservative, but they suddenly pulled away from us when their postal votes were added, but not enough to prevent them falling at the next stage when the block Labour vote for a non-existent campaign was just 18 votes ahead with 357 votes. This Labour vote is made up of four different groups: the Labour Party, the Socialist Labour Party, the Scottish Socialist Party and Solidarity who would have difficulty campaigning together, but who did vote together, as in the Inverness West Ward by-election. It was understandable that the Tories and Labour voters would give their next preference to the Lib Dems instead of the SNP because the Lib Dems have been in coalition with Labour in Scotland and the Tories in England. So the SNP, who had been winning the race until the last hurdle, were pipped at the post.
Christians should note that the Lib Dem winner got only 747 first preference votes, only 7.7% of the electorate, while the SCP got 126 first preference votes, our usual 1.3%. The SCP had thus 16.9% of the winner’s vote, and one should not simply look at the final numbers, which are an accumulation of all the other preference votes. Even with all the preference votes, the front two contenders obtained in total only 1091 and 1084 votes respectively. This is only 11% of the whole electorate because it was a low turn-out, and over 7000 voters did not vote. In spite of the increased electorate, only 2620 voted in 2011 while 3972 voted in 2007. Voters are disgusted with politics and if the SCP can reach and win even a fraction of these 7140 voters we can make the break-through which we need.
The Lib Dem victory will last only six months, until the the next local election in May 2012, which will be quite different from this one because voters will be electing four instead of one councillor. This means that the Lib Dems will likely lose one of their two Councillors in both Inverness West Ward and Inverness South Ward. The new Lib Dem Councillors will probably fight in the wards where two Lib Dem Councillors resigned earlier in 2011.
The SCP is slowly catching up on the major parties and overtaking the minor parties. We are gaining information from each election and our strategy is improving.
Because of the different way that votes are counted, in May 2012 the second and subsequent preference votes for the SCP are more likely to count than in the by-election method of allocating the second votes. Christians need to understand how the voting changes from election to election, and the best way to learn this is to contact and join the Scottish Christian Party. You will be kept informed and up to date by this website, so make it one of your favourites.
Donald plans a series of meetings to explain how the Scottish Christian Party can help you have a Christian Voice in public life. Why not phone Donald to discuss your concerns? You can
contact him at 01463 796952 or by email if you have a question.
If you want to know about the SCP in your area, click here for your regional contact.
Your nearest office is here.
If you want to organise interested Christians in your area, click here to send us an email or telephone 01698 536421.
The latest news is here.
If you would like to make a donation, look for the donation section in the right hand margin.
Come along and join in the action. Next May 2012, the local elections will be an opportunity for Christians in Inverness to work together to have a distinctly Christian voice in the Highland Council.
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This Westminster constituency is about eight times larger than the Inverness South Ward To compare voting numbers with the Inverness South Ward, one needs to divide the following results by eight. The results are:
