UNIONIST tactical voting kept the SNP’s Fergus Mutch from winning a key marginal seat against Tory Alexander Burnett.
Aberdeenshire West became the seat to watch as the SNP swept through the other five Aberdeen constituencies that were declared over election weekend.
The seat has historically been LibDem prior to 2011 when the SNP’s Derek Robertson took it after a boundary change, but in 2016 Tory Alexander Burnett won with a majority of 800.
This year, it was clear from the figures that the LibDem vote had transferred to the Tories, as despite Mutch increasing the SNP’s vote share by 3.6% – the Tories won with an increased majority of 3390 votes.
Speaking to The National after the result, Mutch said: “It’s been a really challenging campaign for all sorts of reasons, we’ve not been able to hit the doors, we’ve not been able to speak to as many people as we’d like to, so I think everyone was fumbling in the dark a wee bit and even after Thursday’s vote was completed, we weren’t quite sure how it was going to go.
“We thought turnout was going to be great and it turned out to be so that was fantastic for us, we got over 16,000 votes for the SNP, it’s more votes by a mile than we’ve ever received in Aberdeenshire West so I’m really proud of the campaign we fought and my team who have worked so hard for months, and it’s been a real challenge. Congratulations to Alexander Burnett, the Tories did well to consolidate that Unionist vote.”
Asked if he thought that the LibDem vote share cost the SNP the seat, Mutch said: “I think you can see that from the figures, the LibDem vote vanished into thin air, our vote went up. It went up to nearly 4% which is no mean feat, we only required a percentage and a half to overtake. It was 900 votes to leapfrog the Tories, but they managed to hoover up those LibDem votes so fair play to them, and the vote that came to us wasn’t enough at the end of the day.
“Obviously it’s disappointing but a great result for the SNP across Scotland. I just had a pow wow with my team and said we can all leave the count today with our heads held high because we fought a brilliant campaign.”
But there were two SNP wins in Aberdeen yesterday with Gillian Martin being re-elected as an MSP for Aberdeenshire East, and Audrey Nicoll taking Aberdeen South and North Kincardine with a majority of 1671 over Liam Kerr. Martin won with a majority of 1889 over Tory candidate Stewart Whyte after a tense overnight wait for the results.
Counting was stopped on Friday night to give staff a break after almost 12 hours of shuffling through ballots, which Martin described as an “excruciating” wait. However, the seat was declared yesterday morning with Martin winning 18,307 votes and securing her re-election.
Speaking to The National after her acceptance speech, where she made an emotional thank you to her dad, Martin said: “I’m feeling quite emotional actually, obviously had a wait overnight, it was dreadful, it was excruciating and not being able to really sample boxes but we’re here, I’m glad for my staff, I’m glad for my party and I’m relieved for my family who have had a really sleepless night last night. I’m relieved and I’m happy.”
Nicoll, who also serves as a local councillor, said she was “absolutely delighted” that she had had a really strong result in Aberdeen South and North Kincardine.
She said: “Obviously we’ve seen our vote increase in the constituency, Aberdeen South and North Kincardine is really diverse, so everybody is represented, every political perspective is represented so I’m delighted that we’ve secured what I consider a very strong win.”
And Maggie Chapman won a regional seat in the North East region for the Greens after losing out on the spot in the 2016 election.
In her acceptance speech, she thanked her campaign staff and the workers at the count for keeping everyone safe and tidying up after them.
She said: “Thanks to my partner Peter, my rock, I wouldn’t be here without you and it’s your birthday tomorrow, so happy birthday my love. I’d like to pay special tribute to someone who would have loved to have seen today, in our campaign team five years ago we were led by Joe Brown, he died in January this year and I’d like to dedicate this win to his memory and his love of siskins. It is such a huge honour and incredibly humbling to be elected as a Green in the North East, a region dominated by an energy industry that we need to transform.”
The other regional MSPs elected for the North East region were from the Tories with Liam Kerr, Douglas Lumsden, Maurice Golden and Tess White, while Labour gained two MSPs in Michael Marra and Mercedes Villalba.
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