Thursday 10 May 2007

Council results again

I was speaking with a West End constituent yesterday who pointed out the relatively meaningless way the way in which the City Council election results are displayed on the Council's website. These merely show the stage at which candidates were elected (and give no indication of the performance of unsuccessful candidates) - to take the West End Ward as an example:
WEST END WARD ..... Turnout - 49.55%

Donald Hay - Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Elected at Stage 8

Fraser Macpherson - Liberal Democrat Focus Team
Elected at Stage 1

James Walker Barrie - Scottish National Party (SNP)
Elected at Stage 1

Richard McCready - Scottish Labour
Elected at Stage 1
This really gives the reader no impression as to how the three candidates who were elected at Stage 1 performed in relation to one another, or how many first preference votes they received.
Yesterday, after a briefing for newly elected councillors, members were given a full breakdown of the results, and the following therefore gives a more meaningful impression of candidate performance in the West End.
It should be noted that, despite all the complications of surpluses transferred as candidates win or get eliminated (there were 8 stages of the Count in our Ward), in fact the four candidates at the top right at the start were the candidates finally elected. As one party (the nationalists) had more than one candidate here, I have indicated the winning and losing candidates.
West End Ward - First Preference Votes
Elected Candidates
Fraser Macpherson, Liberal Democrat FOCUS Team 1693
Richard McCready, Scottish Labour 1331
Jim Barrie, SNP (winning) 1326
Donald Hay, Scottish Conservative and Unionist 738
Not Elected
Chic Brodie, SNP (losing) 495
George Burton, Green 307
Luke Ivory, Solidarity 95
Angela Gorrie, SSP 69
I spoke yesterday to the Council's public relations department and suggested that a link beside each ward result on the website to take you to a PDF of the full breakdown would be a helpful addition.
The list (and mug shots!) of all 29 new council members are now on the Council website and you can follow a link to this by clicking on the headline above.