Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine LD Hold

Scottish Parliament election

constituency

	Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine	LD Hold

	CANDIDATE	PARTY	VOTES	%	+/-%
	Mike Rumbles	LD	14553	46.0	+10.1
	David Davidson	CON	9154	28.9	-0.6
	Ian Angus	SNP	4489	14.2	-7.4
	Kevin Hutchens	LAB	2727	8.6	-4.4
	Alan Manley	SSP	713	2.3	+2.3
		MAJORITY	5399	17.1
		TURNOUT	31636	50.6

ELECTORATE	62542

Top-up region: North East Scotland

DESCRIPTION: Aberdeenshire West & Kincardine

The seat covers territory normally associated with safe Tory areas. It stretches from the Grampian Mountains in Royal Deeside to the coastal villages of Newtonhill and St Cryrus including Balmoral. It holds some spectacular scenery which attracts tourists in droves, has many farming communities and, thanks to the river Dee, has some of the finest salmon fishing in the country.

Conservative minister and pro-devolutionist Alick Buchanan-Smith represented it from 1964 until his death in 1991. The Liberal Democrats’ Nicol Stephen (who became MSP for Aberdeen South in 1999) won it at the by-election, but five months later the Tories re-took Kincardine & Deeside (as it was called then) at the 1992 election. Sir Robert Smith won it back for the Lib Dems in 1997, and in 1999 Mike Rumbles kept the Holyrood seat in Lib Dem hands. He went on to make a name for himself as part of the coalition’s “awkward squad”.

PREVIOUS RESULTS

	1999 SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT ELECTION		LD WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LD	12838	35.9
	CON	10549	29.5
	SNP	7699	21.5
	LAB	4650	13

	2001 GENERAL ELECTION		LD WIN
	PARTY	VOTES	%
	LD	16507	43.5
	CON	11686	30.8
	LAB	4669	12.3
	SNP	4634	12.2
	SSP	418	1.1