Aberdeen South (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Aberdeen South (UK Parliament constituency).

Aberdeen South was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it was one of nine constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Aberdeen South
Former burgh constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Aberdeen South shown within the North East Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999
Abolished	2011
Council area	Aberdeen City (part)
Replaced by	Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen South & North Kincardine

For the Scottish Parliament election, 2011, Aberdeen South was expanded into Aberdeenshire for the newly created constituency of Aberdeen South and North Kincardine.

Electoral region

See also: North East Scotland (Scottish Parliament electoral region)

The other eight constituencies of the North East Scotland region were; Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen North, Angus, Banff and Buchan, Dundee East, Dundee West, Gordon and West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine.

The region covers the Aberdeenshire council area, the Aberdeen City council area, the Dundee City council area, part of the Angus council area, a small part of the Moray council area and a small part of the Perth and Kinross council area.

Constituency boundaries

The Aberdeen South constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, the boundaries of the Westminster (House of Commons) constituency were subject to some alteration.

Council area

The Holyrood constituency was within the Aberdeen City council area, which was divided between three North East Scotland constituencies: Aberdeen South, Aberdeen Central and Aberdeen North. All three were entirely within the city area.

Boundary review

See also: Scottish Parliament constituencies and regions from 2011

Following their First Periodic review of parliamentary constituencies to the Scottish Parliament, the Boundary Commission for Scotland has created three newly shaped seats for the Aberdeen City council area. These seats, which were formed in time for the elections in 2011, were Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen Donside, and Aberdeen South and North Kincardine.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Election		Member	Party
	1999	Nicol Stephen	Scottish Liberal Democrats[1]
	2011	constituency abolished: replaced by Aberdeen South and North Kincardine

Election results

2007 Scottish Parliament election: Aberdeen South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Nicol Stephen	10,843	36.3	−9.6
	SNP	Maureen Watt	8,111	27.1	+12.8
	Labour	Rami Okasha	5,499	18.4	−0.9
	Conservative	David Davidson	5,432	18.2	+0.8
Majority			2,731	9.2	−17.4
Turnout			29,885	52.7	+0.9
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	-11.2

2003 Scottish Parliament election: Aberdeen South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Nicol Stephen	13,821	45.9	+13.3
	Labour	Richard Baker	5,805	19.3	−8.2
	Conservative	Ian Duncan	5,230	17.4	−2.8
	SNP	Maureen Watt	4,315	14.3	−4.9
	Scottish Socialist	Keith Farnsworth	953	3.2	New
Majority			8,016	26.6	+21.5
Turnout			30,124	51.8
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing	+10.8

1999 Scottish Parliament election: Aberdeen South

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	Nicol Stephen	11,300	32.6	N/A
	Labour	Mike Elrick	9,540	27.5	N/A
	Conservative	Nanette Milne	6,993	20.2	N/A
	SNP	Irene McGugan	6,651	19.2	N/A
	Socialist Workers	Scott Sutherland	206	0.6	N/A
Majority			1,760	5.1	N/A
Turnout			34,690		N/A
	Liberal Democrats win (new seat)

Preceded by Orkney

Constituency represented by the Deputy First Minister of Scotland 2005–2007

Succeeded by Glasgow Govan