1999 Scottish Parliament election

6 May 1999 (1999-05-06) 2003 →
elected members →
All 129 seats to the Scottish Parliament 65 seats were needed for a majority
Turnout	Constituency - 58.4% Regional - 58.3%
First party Second party Third party   Leader Donald Dewar Alex Salmond David McLetchie Party Labour SNP Conservative Leader's seat Glasgow Anniesland Banff and Buchan Lothians Seats won 56 35 18 Constituency vote 908,346 672,768 364,425 Percentage 38.8% 28.7% 15.6% Regional vote 786,818 638,644 359,109 Percentage 33.6% 27.3% 15.4%   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Jim Wallace Robin Harper Tommy Sheridan Party Liberal Democrats Scottish Green Scottish Socialist Leader's seat Orkney Lothians Glasgow Seats won 17 1 1 Constituency vote 333,179 – 23,654 Percentage 14.2% – 1.0% Regional vote 290,760 84,023 46,635 Percentage 12.4% 3.6% 2.0%
The left side shows constituency winners of the election by their party colours. The right side shows regional winners of the election for the additional members by their party colours. Constituency names are listed at the bottom.
First Minister after election Donald Dewar Labour

The first election to the devolved Scottish Parliament, to fill 129 seats, took place on 6 May 1999. Following the election, the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats formed the Scottish Executive, with Labour Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) Donald Dewar becoming First Minister.

The Scottish Parliament was created after a referendum on devolution took place on 11 September 1997 in which 74.3% of those who voted approved the idea. The Scotland Act (1998) was then passed by the UK Parliament which established the devolved Scottish Parliament and Scottish Executive. The parliament was elected using Mixed-member proportional representation, combining 73 (First-past-the-post) constituencies^{[note 1]} and proportional representation with the 73 constituencies being grouped together to make eight regions each electing seven additional members to make a total of 129. This meant that it would be unlikely for any party to gain a majority of seats in the new parliament and either minority or coalition Scottish Executives would have to be formed.

The first general election to the Scottish Parliament overall produced few surprises with the Labour Party still enjoying high popularity following their landslide victory in the 1997 UK general election as widely expected was the largest party winning 56 seats, mostly in their traditional Central Belt heartlands, which was nine seats short of an overall majority. Labour formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, who won 17 seats.^[1]

The Scottish National Party (SNP) had done well in opinion polls running up to the election, gaining 40% in some approval ratings, but this level of support was not maintained. The SNP were the second largest party with 35 seats, which still represented their best performance since the October 1974 general election.^[2] The Conservative Party, still recovering from their wipeout in the 1997 general election across Scotland, failed to win a single constituency seat but did manage to win 18 seats through the Additional Member System.

The Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) and the Greens picked up unexpected additional member seats.^[3] Robin Harper became the first ever elected Green parliamentarian in the history of the United Kingdom.^[4][5] Dennis Canavan, who had failed to become an approved Labour candidate, won the Falkirk West constituency as an independent candidate.^[6]

Following the election the new parliament met in the General Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland in Edinburgh for the first time on Wednesday 12 May 1999, although the actual devolution of powers from Westminster to the Scottish Parliament did not take place until midnight on Thursday 1 July 1999, almost two months later.^[7][8]

For a full list of MSPs elected, see 1st Scottish Parliament. For lists of constituencies and regions, see Scottish Parliament constituencies and electoral regions.

Results

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1999 Scottish Parliament election^[9] →

Party		Constituencies					Regional additional members					Total seats
		Votes	%	±	Seats	±	Votes	%	±	Seats	±	Total	±	%
	Labour	908,346	38.8	new	53	new	786,818	33.6	new	3	new	56	new	43.4
	SNP	672,768	28.7	new	7	new	638,644	27.3	new	28	new	35	new	27.1
	Conservative	364,425	15.6	new	0	new	359,109	15.4	new	18	new	18	new	14.0
	Liberal Democrats	333,179	14.2	new	12	new	290,760	12.4	new	5	new	17	new	13.2
	Scottish Green	–	–	–	–	–	84,023	3.6	new	1	new	1	new	0.8
	Scottish Socialist	23,654	1.0	new	0	new	46,635	2.0	new	1	new	1	new	0.8
	MSP for Falkirk West	18,511	0.8	new	1	new	27,712	1.2	new	0	new	1	new	0.8
	Socialist Labour	5,268	0.2	new	0	new	55,153	2.4	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	ProLife Alliance	–	–	–	–	–	9,784	0.4	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Scottish Unionist	–	–	–	–	–	7,011	0.3	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Liberal	–	–	–	–	–	5,534	0.2	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Natural Law	–	–	–	–	–	4,906	0.2	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Socialist Workers	2757	0.1	new	0	new	–	–	–	–	–	0	new	0.0
	Highlands and Islands Alliance	–	–	–	–	–	2,607	0.1	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Civil Rights Movement	–	–	–	–	–	806	0.0	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Communist	190	0.0	new	0	new	521	0.0	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Socialist (GB)	–	–	–	–	–	697	0.0	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Humanist	–	–	–	–	–	447	0.0	new	0	new	0	new	0.0
	Anti-drug	423	0.0	new	0	new	–	–	–	–	–	0	new	0.0
	Others	12,967	0.6	–	0	–	17,668	0.7	–	0	–	0	–	0.0
Valid votes		2,342,488	99.7	–			2,338,914	99.7	–
Spoilt votes		7,839	0.3	–			7,268	0.3	–
Total		2,350,327	100		73	–	2,346,182	100		56	–	129	–	100
Electorate/turnout		4,027,433	58.4	–			4,027,433	58.3	–

Constituency and regional summary

Central Scotland

Glasgow

Highlands and Islands

Lothians

Mid Scotland and Fife

North East Scotland

South of Scotland

West of Scotland

Party representation

• Labour – 56 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs)
• SNP – 35 MSPs
• Conservative – 18 MSPs
• Liberal Democrats – 17 MSPs
• Green – 1 MSP
• SSP – 1 MSP
• Others (Dennis Canavan, Falkirk West) – 1 MSP

Party leaders in 1999

• Labour – Donald Dewar
• SNP – Alex Salmond
• Conservative – David McLetchie
• Liberal Democrat – Jim Wallace
• SSP – Tommy Sheridan
• Green – Robin Harper

Opinion polls