Was 2007 a fair result?

Multi party politics2

The SNP won the election by the closest of margins.

“No Scottish party had the support of anything like a majority of voters, and as a consequence no party has anything approaching a majority of the seats. If the First-Past-the-Post system, which we still use in electing MPs, had been used it is likely that one party would have won an outright majority of seats in spite of having the support of little more than 30% of voters.”

Ken Ritchie, Chief Executive, Electoral Reform Society

Results

SNP Lab Con Lib-Dem Greens Ind (Margo MacDonald)

% age of Constituency vote

32.9 32.2 16.6 16.2

% age of Regional List vote

31 29.2 13.9 11.3 2.8 6.7

Constituency MSPs 21 37 4 11 0 0

Regional List MSPs 26 9 13 5 2 1

First Minister Alex Salmond, Depute First Minister Nicola Sturgeon

Unlike Labour in 1999 and 2003, the SNP was unable to find a coalition partner (the Lib Dems refused to enter into a formal coalition due to the SNP’s desire to hold a referendum on the issue of independence).

The SNP, therefore, is a minority Government. It has had to govern on an “issue by issue” basis, seeking to pass legislation by winning the support of a majority of MSPs.

A Minority Scottish Government

Note the change of name from “Scottish Executive” to Scottish Government in August 2007. This was a shrewd political move by Alex Salmond to shift the mindset of the Scottish people towards greater independence.

If we already have a Scottish Government is an independent Scottish Government so scary?

Alex Salmond has trimmed the Government down from nine departments to six.

Good for small parties?

It is something of a myth that the AMS is “good for small parties”. It depends on how popular they are.

In this election the increase in support for the SNP squeezed out parties such as the Greens, the Scottish Socialist Party and the Scottish citizens Unity party who had won seats before.

The Greens hung on in there with 2 seats, but the others all lost their representation.

The feud between the SSP and Tommy Sheridans’ breakaway party, Solidarity, no doubt damaged their chances too.

Good for the Conservatives!

Arguably, the creation of the Scottish Parliament with its AMS, saved the Scottish Conservatives from political extinction.

It is one of the great ironies of Scottish politics that the Conservatives originally opposed both the Scottish Parliament, and its voting system!

In 1999, all 18 of the Conservatives MSPs were from the second, List vote. There were none elected from the FPTP constituencies

In 2003, the Conservatives managed to have three MSPs elected from constituencies, but the other fifteen were from the second, List vote.

In 2007, Only four of the 17 Conservative seats are from FPTP constituencies.

A fair result?

If FPTP was used to elect the Scottish Parliament, Labour would have won 37 out of the 73 seats (50.1% of all the seats), enjoyed a single seat majority over all the other parties combined, and had 16 more MSPs than the SNP

You can see why Labour doesn’t like the AMS!

Unrepresented voters?

Michael Matheson MSP, SNP, Falkirk West.

There are some voters in Scotland who, because of the AMS, are completely unrepresented.

For example, if you voted Labour in Falkirk West (11,292 did), you would have nobody to represent your views: your Constituency MSP would be a Nationalist, (Michael Matheson, left)

There are no Labour List MSPs in Central Scotland despite 112, 596 people voting Labour.

Unelected MSPs?

June 2007.The SNP’s Stefan Tymkewycz stands down.

So Shirley-Anne Somerville replaces him!

In June 2007, SNP MSP Stefan Tymkewycz stood down as an MSP just months after being elected to Holyrood.

He was replaced by Shirley-Anne Somerville as a Lothians list MSP. While Shirley-Anne Somerville may well be an excellent MSP, the fact remains that she, personally, was not elected by the voters of the Lothians!

The same is the case with the SNP’s Anne McLaughlin who replaced Bashir ahmad as Glasgow list MSP when he died in 2009.

The Scottish Parliament’s voting system does not allow for by-elections for List MSPs but it does for constituency MSPs.

Diversity?

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The AMS, in theory, is supposed to encourage a more diverse group of representatives to be elected.

There are more female representatives than at Westminster, but there are no BME representatives (Bashir Ahmad died in 2009).

34% of Members of the Scottish Parliament are women - down from 39% during the Parliament's first session. Above, Rosie Kane who, like all the other SSP MSPs, lost her seat in 2007.

Lost votes In 2007, Scotland’s local authority elections took place on the same day as the Scottish Parliament elections. The council elections use the STV system.

Many voters were confused by two different voting systems being used on the same day.

Confusion also reigned over the “List” ballot paper being placed to the left of the constituency paper.

The SNP used this to their advantage by cheekily placing “Alex Salmond for First Minister” on the List ballot paper, gaining top position alphabetically.

In several seats, none more so than in Cunninghame North where the SNP’s Kenny Gibson won by 48 votes, the number of spoilt papers was higher than the winning candidates’ majority.

The next Scottish parliament elections will take place on May 5 2011.Scotland’s local council elections will not place till 2012.

But, the referendum on changing the UK’s voting system will take place on the same day as the Scottish Parliament elections!

Minority Success: Prescription chargesMinority Government means that the SNP Government can win some parliamentary votes, lose some and compromise on many.

But, perhaps this kind of debate and accountability is more democratic?

The SNP Government does not need legislation to pass all of its policies

First Minister Alex Salmond can use his Executive powers to introduce new policies e.g. the phased abolition of prescription charges

Phased abolition of prescription charges

Minority Failure: The Council Tax Stays!

The SNP’s proposed Local Income Tax has been abandoned.

The opposition parties refused to support it.

So, it’s back to the drawing board.

Minority Deadlock: The Independence Referendum

Scotland’s three main Opposition parties are opposed to independence and also to having a referendum on the matter.

Labour has 46 MSPs, the Conservatives have 17 and the Liberal Democrats 16..

This means that the SNP’s referendum plans can be easily outvoted unless one of the parties can be won over.