Ross, Skye and Inverness West (Scottish Parliament constituency)

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**Ross, Skye and Inverness West**
Scottish Parliament county constituency

Ross, Skye and Inverness West shown within the Highlands and Islands electoral region
Created:	1999
MSP:	John Farquhar Munro
Party:	Liberal Democrats
Council area:	Highland (part)

Ross, Skye and Inverness West is a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Also, however, it is one of eight constituencies in the Highlands and Islands electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to eight constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

Ross, Skye and Inverness West covers a central portion of the Highland council area.

1 Electoral region
2 Constituency boundaries
- 2.1 Council area
3 Member of the Scottish Parliament
4 Election results
5 Notes and references
- 5.1 See also

[edit] Electoral region

The other seven constituencies of the Highlands and Islands electoral region are Argyll and Bute, Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross, Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber, Moray, Orkney, Shetland and the Western Isles.

The region covers most of Argyll and Bute council area, all of the Highland council area, most of the Moray council area, all of the Orkney council area, all of the Shetland council area and all of Na h-Eileanan Siar.

[edit] Constituency boundaries

The Ross, Skye and Inverness West 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. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster constituencies were generally replaced with new larger constituencies^[1]. For representation at Westminster, the area of the Holyrood constituency is now divided between three constituencies: the Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross Westminster constituency, the Ross, Skye and Lochaber Westminster constituency and the Inverness, Nairn, Badenoch and Strathspey Westminster constituency.

[edit] Council area

Ross, Skye and Inverness West is one of three Holyrood constituencies covering the Highland council area. The other two are Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross and Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber. Ross, Skye and Inverness West covers a central portion of the council area, with Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross to the north and Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber to the south. All three are within the Highlands and Islands electoral region.

In terms of Highland Council committee areas established in 1999, the Ross, Skye and Inverness West constituency covers most of the Ross and Crommarty committee area, all of the Skye and Lochalsh committee area and part (generally northwest of Loch Ness and the River Ness) of the Inverness committee area. New committee areas will be created in 2007, but this change will not affect constituency boundaries.

[edit] Member of the Scottish Parliament

1999 - present: John Farquhar Munro, Liberal Democrats

[edit] Election results

Scottish parliamentary election, 2003: Ross, Skye and Inverness West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	John Farquhar Munro	12495	43.1	+10.2
	Scottish National Party	David Thomson	5647	19.5	-3.1
	Labour	Maureen MacMillan	5464	18.9	-9.7
	Conservative	Jamie McGrigor	3772	13.0	+3.6
	Scottish Socialist	Anne McLeod	1593	5.5	+5.5
Majority			6848	23.6
Turnout			28971	52
	Liberal Democrats hold		Swing

Scottish parliamentary election, 1999: Ross, Skye and Inverness West
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Liberal Democrats	John Farquhar Munro	11652	32.9	N/A
	Labour	Donnie Munro	10113	28.6	N/A
	Scottish National Party	Jim Mather	7997	22.6	N/A
	Conservative	John Scott	3351	9.5	N/A
	Independent (politician)	William Douglas Briggs	2302	6.5	N/A
Majority			1539	4.3
Turnout			35415	62.8