By Richard Wood
Edinburgh Elects has been launched ahead of the Scottish local authority elections on Thursday 5 May 2022.
The site and dedicated Twitter page offer news and analysis of the City of Edinburgh Council’s local elections.
Edinburgh is one of the 32 councils in Scotland, all of which are up for election in May.
No fewer than 63 councillors will be elected via the Single Transferable Vote across 17 Edinburgh wards in May.
READ MORE: Ward #1 Almond – the Lib Dem heart of Edinburgh Western (via Edinburgh Elects)
City of Edinburgh Council election 2017
In 2017, the SNP won 19 seats to become the largest party for the first time. In the aftermath of the election, they formed a an adminisatration with Labour who won 12 seats.
The Conservatives won 18 seats (with the highest number of first preference votes) while the Greens secured 8 and the Lib Dems won 6.
The composition of the council has change somewhat since then due to some councils leaving their party groups.
If the SNP remain the largest party after May, which looks likely, they will be the first party in Edinburgh during the STV era to win the most seats two elections in a row. The party will be hoping to keep the seats they have or possibly even make gains while the Conservatives will want to hold onto the seats they have. Labour will be hoping for a comeback after a disastrous few elections while the Greens and Lib dems will be hoping to build on their gains in 2017.
READ MORE: Ward #2 Pentland Hills – can the Conservatives continue to dominate?
Where to find Edinburgh Elects
The Edinburgh Elects Twitter page launched on 26 February 2022 while the site launched on 7 March 2022.
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