Dunfermline East LAB Hold

Scottish Parliament election

constituency

	Dunfermline East	LAB Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Helen Eadie	LAB	11552	49.9	-6.0
	Janet Law	SNP	4262	18.4	-8.2
	Stuart Randall	CON	2485	10.7	+0.9
	Brian Walker Stewart	ICLH	1890	8.2	+8.2
	Linda Graham	SSP	1537	6.6	+6.6
	Rodger Spillane	LD	1428	6.2	-1.5
		MAJORITY	7290	31.5
		TURNOUT	23154	45.2

ELECTORATE	51220

Top-up region: Mid Scotland and Fife

DESCRIPTION: Dunfermline East

The title of this seat is something of a misnomer, since no part of Dunfermline town is actually located here. Instead, Cowdenbeath is the largest town and most of the seat's area was once part of the Fife coalfield, on the north bank of the Firth of Forth. Economically the region has had its troubles, and matters have not been helped by the closure of the Rosyth naval base and the troubles at the naval dockyard. However, in February 2002 Intelligent Finance announced plans for a customer contact centre at Rosyth Europarc with the creation of 600 jobs.

This has been one of Labour’s safest seats in Scotland. There has been a Labour MP for this area since 1950. Gordon Brown, the chancellor, has been the MP since 1983 and his majority at the last general election was over 15,000. Labour’s Helen Eadie won the Holyrood seat at the 1999 election.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	16576	55.9
	SNP	7877	26.6
	CON	2931	9.9
	LD	2275	7.7

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LAB WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LAB	19487	64.8
	SNP	4424	14.7
	CON	2838	9.4
	LD	2281	7.6
	SSP	770	2.6
	UKIP	286	1