SNP gain Penicuik

Friday March 23rd 2018

Joe Wallace elected

Joe Wallace and his supporters celebrate

The SNP candidate, Joe Wallace, has won the Ward 1 Penicuik by-election. The by-election was called after the death of Labour councillor and provost, Councilor Adam Montgomery.

Joe Wallace was elected at Stage 3. The election is by the Single Transferable Vote System (STV).

Mr Wallace was previously a Midlothian Councillor and the Provost up to May 2017, so this vistory sees him make a swift return to Midlothian Council. This now means that of the the 18 Midlothian Councillors, 7 are SNP, 6 are Labour and 5 are Conservative.

The effect of the result on the running of the council remains to be seen but Tuesday’s full council meeting will see the election of a Provost, whom will then chair council meetings. The Provost vote is a simply the one with highest number of votes, therefore if the votes go by party candidate then it will see an SNP Provost elected.

The turnout was 42.9%.

The four candidates were as follows:

  • Helen Armstrong, Scottish Green Party
  • Murdo Macdonald, Scottish Conservative and Unionist
  • Joe Wallace, Scottish National Party (SNP)
  • Vivienne Wallace, Scottish Labour Party.

The full results were:

Stage One

The total number of votes cast was 4,781 and 31 rejected.

  • Helen Armstrong: 344 votes
  • Murdo Macdonald: 1,433 votes
  • Joe Wallace: 1,663 votes
  • Vivienne Wallace: 1,310

No candidate attained the 2376 quota so the count proceeded to Stage 2. The candidate with the lowest number of votes, Helen Armstrong was excluded and her votes transferred to the remaining candidates in accordance with the voters’ next preferences.

Stage Two

  • Murdo Macdonald: 36 transferred so total of 1,469 votes
  • Joe Wallace: 140 transferred so total of 1,803 votes
  • Vivienne Wallace: 104 transferred so total of 1,414 votes

Vivienne Wallace was then excluded and her votes transferred to the remaining candidates in accordance with the voters’ next preferences.

Stage Three

  • Murdo Macdonald: 319 transferred so total of 1,788 votes
  • Joe Wallace: 434 transferred so total of 2,237 votes.

There were 661 non-transferrable votes identified at Stage 3 giving total non-transferable votes of 725.

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