Scottish local elections, 2017

Scottish local elections, 2017

← 2012 4 May 2017 (2017-05-04) 2022 →
All 1,227 seats to 32 Scottish councils
Turnout	46.9% (7.3%)
First party Second party   Leader Nicola Sturgeon Ruth Davidson Party SNP Conservative Leader since 14 November 2014 4 November 2011 Last election 425 seats, 32.33% 115 seats, 13.27% Seats before 438 112 Seats won 431 276 Seat change 7 164 First preferences 610,454 478,073 First preferences (%) 32.30 25.30 Swing (pp) 0.03 12.03 Councils 0 0 Councils +/– 1   Third party Fourth party   Leader Kezia Dugdale Willie Rennie Party Labour Liberal Democrats Leader since 15 August 2015 17 May 2011 Last election 394 seats, 31.39% 71 seats, 6.62% Seats before 395 70 Seats won 262 67 Seat change 133 3 First preferences 380,957 128,821 First preferences (%) 20.16 6.82 Swing (pp) 11.23 0.20 Councils 0 0 Councils +/– 3
Most voted for party by council, largest party by council, and largest party by ward. Ward map utilises the new ward boundaries.

The 2017 Scottish local elections were held on Thursday 4 May, in all 32 local authorities. The Scottish National Party (SNP) won the highest share of the vote, and retained its position as the party with the highest share of councillors.

Independent councillors retained majority control over the 3 island councils. For the first time since local government reforms in the 1990s, all 29 mainland councils fell under no overall control.

The previous election was in 2012. Normally these elections take place every four years, but this election was postponed for a year in order to avoid clashing with the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.

Once again the local elections were counted electronically, using the same system used in 2012. The tender was awarded to CGI (formerly Logica) and Idox Elections (formerly Opt2vote), both of which delivered the 2012 elections successfully.

All registered electors (British, Irish, Commonwealth and European Union citizens) who were aged 16 or over on polling day were entitled to vote in the local elections. A person who had two homes (such as a university student who has a term-time address and lives at home during holidays) could register to vote at both addresses as long as they are not in the same electoral area, and could vote in the local elections for the two different local councils.

Individuals must have registered to vote by midnight twelve working days before polling day (17 April 2017). Anyone who qualified as an anonymous elector had until midnight on 25 April 2017 to register.

Following the election, SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon played down the threat posed by the Conservatives to her party, asserting that the good performance by the Conservatives was on account of Labour support going to the Conservatives and not because of any shift in SNP voters.