Rt. Hon. Donald Dewar, a leading figure in Scottish Labour politics, had in 1999 been elected to the Scottish Parliament where he had become First Minister of the Scottish Executive, but he retained his seat in the Parliament of the United Kingdom intending to stand down at the next general election. However, Dewar died on September 2, 2000 from the effects of a fall outside his official residence. The fall would not have been fatal had he not been on warfarin after suffering a heart attack earlier that year. This created a by-election for his seat of Glasgow, Anniesland for both Parliaments.
Both elections were held on the same day, and polling day was set for November 23. John Robertson had already been chosen to fight the seat for Labour at the general election and therefore stood at the byelection. The Labour vote declined, but with the main benfiicary being the fringe Scottish Socialist Party rather than the challenging Scottish National Party, the seat was comfortably held.
Results
Westminster result
The turnout was 38.1%.
General Election result, 1997
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share
|
| Donald Dewar | (Lab) | 20,951 | 61.8%
|
| Bill Wilson | (SNP) | 5,797 | 17.1%
|
| Robert Brocklehurst | (C) | 3,881 | 11.5%
|
| Christopher McGinty | (L Dem) | 2,453 | 7.2%
|
| Akhtar Majid | (PLA) | 374 | 1.1%
|
| Bill Bonnar | (SSA) | 229 | 0.7%
|
| Alan Milligan | (UKIP) | 86 | 0.3%
|
| Gillian McKay | (RP) | 84 | 0.2%
|
| Thomas Pringle | (NLP) | 24 | 0.1%
|
Scottish Parliament result
Scottish Parliament Election result, 1999
| Candidate | Party | Votes | Share
|
| Donald Dewar | (Lab) | 16,749 | 61.8%
|
| Kaukab Stewart | (SNP) | 5,756 | 20.2%
|
| Bill Aitken | (C) | 3,032 | 10.7%
|
| Iain Brown | (L Dem) | 1,804 | 6.3%
|
| Ann Lynch | (SSP) | 1,000 | 3.5%
|
| Alan Milligan | (UKIP) | 86 | 0.3%
|
| Edward Boyd | (SLP) | 139 | 0.5%
|
See Also
