Aberdeen Central LAB Hold

Scottish Parliament election

constituency

	Aberdeen Central	LAB Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Lewis MacDonald	LAB	6835	32.6	-6.3
	Richard Lochhead	SNP	5593	26.7	-2.0
	Eleanor Anderson	LD	4744	22.6	+6.0
	Alan Butler	CON	2616	12.5	-1.3
	Andy Cumbers	SSP	1176	5.6	+3.6
		MAJORITY	1242	5.9
		TURNOUT	20964	42.4

ELECTORATE	49477

Top-up region: North East Scotland

DESCRIPTION: Aberdeen Central

Aberdeen is Scotland's third largest city, but is most widely-known as Europe's oil capital. It is also a fishing port. The residential areas are mixed, with some of the city's most affluent districts in Rubislaw and Queen's Park but also more working-class areas such as Woodside, St Machar, Linksfield and Causewayend. This seat holds the city centre, old town, university and football stadium. This was a new seat for the city of Aberdeen at the 1997 general election, formed from 30,000 of the electorate previously in Aberdeen North and 26,000 from Aberdeen South.

The sitting MP Frank Doran became MP for South in 1987 only to lose to the Tory Raymond Robertson in 1992, making him the only Labour MP to be ousted by a Conservative at that election. The Labour candidate and 1999 Holyrood victor is Lewis Macdonald, deputy transport minister. The recent fishing crisis and Gordon Brown's Windfall tax on North Sea oil profits announced in 2002 may well lose Labour votes. This seat is a target for the SNP.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	10305	38.9
	SNP	7609	28.7
	LD	4403	16.6
	CON	3655	13.8
	SSP	523	2

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	12025	45.5
	SNP	5379	20.4
	LD	4547	17.2
	CON	3761	14.2
	SSP	717	2.7