Perth (Scottish Parliament constituency)

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**Perth**
Scottish Parliament county constituency

Perth shown within the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region
Created:	1999
MSP:	Roseanna Cunningham
Party:	Scottish National Party
Council area:	Perth and Kinross (part)

Perth is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, however, it is one of nine constituencies in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

1 Electoral region
2 Constituency boundaries and council area
3 Description of the constituency
4 Election results
5 Footnotes

[edit] Electoral region

The other eight constituencies of the South of Scotland region are Dunfermline East, Dunfermline West, Fife Central, Fife North East, Kirkcaldy, Ochil, Stirling and Tayside North.

The region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area, all of the Stirling council area and parts of the Angus council area.

[edit] Constituency boundaries and council area

The constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of a pre-existing Westminster (House of Commons) constituency. The area has been covered by Westmister constituencies with differing names but similar boundaries since 1918, but in 2005 Scottish Westminster constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies^[1]. Most of the Perth Westminster constituency was merged into Ochil and South Perthshire. Part, including the town of Perth, was merged into Perth and North Perthshire.

The Holyrood constituency of Perth covers a central portion of the Perth and Kinross council area. The rest of the council area is covered by two Mid Scotland and Fife constituencies, Ochil and Tayside North, and one North East Scotland constituency, Angus.

The Ochil constituency, to the south of the Perth constituency, also covers the Clackmannanshire council area and a south-eastern portion of the Stirling council area.

Tayside North, to the north of the Perth constituency, also covers a northern portions of the Angus council area.

The Angus constituency, to the north-east of the Perth constituency, also covers a southern portion of the Angus council area and north-western and north-eastern portions of the City of Dundee council area.

[edit] Description of the constituency

The constituency is a combination of small prosperous towns and rich agricultural land. It includes the town of Perth and the towns of Bridge of Earn, Auchterarder, Crieff and Comrie. It is a relatively prosperous, largely rural, Lowland seat on the fringe of the Highlands, with successful livestock farming, fruit-growing and tourism interests. Unemployment is relatively low and half the electorate lives in the town of Perth itself.

In Westminster elections the area is traditionally Conservative, and Conservatives have held seats representing the area during most of the period since World War II. Scottish National Party (SNP) tradition is also strong, however, and the SNP has contested every parliamentary election in the area in the same post war period. In the Perth and Kinross Westminster by-election in 1995, the SNP's Roseanna Cunningham won the Perth and Kinross Westminster seat from the Conservatives with an 11.5% swing. She then held the seat in the 1997 United Kingdom general election and went on to be elected to Holyrood in the 1999 Scottish Parliament election, and to be re-elected in the 2003 Scottish Parliament election. Following a number of local opinion polls in the Perth area ,the Conservative Party are expected to gain this seat at the next Scottish Parliamentary elections.

[edit] Election results

Scottish parliamentary election, 2003: Perth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National Party	Roseanna Cunningham	10,717	33.9	-2.4
	Conservative	Alexander Stewart	9,990	31.6	+0.7
	Labour	Rob Ball	5,629	17.8	-5.5
	Liberal Democrats	Gordon Campbell	3,530	11.2	+1.7
	Scottish Socialist	Philip Stott	982	3.1	+3.1
	Independent	Thomas Burns	509	1.6	+1.6
	Scottish People's Alliance	Kenneth Buchanan	257	0.8	+0.8
Majority			727	2.3	-3.1
Turnout			31,614	51
	Scottish National Party hold		Swing	-2.4

Scottish parliamentary election, 1999: Perth
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Scottish National Party	Roseanna Cunningham	13,570	36.3	N/A
	Conservative	Ian Stevenson	11,543	30.9	N/A
	Labour	Jilian Richards	8,725	23.3	N/A
	Liberal Democrats	Chic Brodie	3,558	9.5	N/A
Majority			2,027	5.4	N/A
Turnout			25,027
	Scottish National Party hold		Swing	N/A