Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election, 2008

Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election

8 February 2008 (2008-26-08)



Candidate	Tavish Scott	Ross Finnie	Mike Rumbles
Popular vote	1,450	568	439
Percentage	59.0	21.3	17.9

Elected Leader

Tavish Scott

The 2008 Scottish Liberal Democrats leadership election was an election to choose a new leader of the Liberal Democrats in Scotland, triggered following the resignation of Nicol Stephen for personal reasons. Deputy leader Michael Moore (MP for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk) took over as interim party leader, and the timetable for the election was agreed on 5 July 2008: Nominations closed on 24 July 2008, the return of the ballot papers was set for 26 August 2008 and the declaration of results occurred on the same date.^[1] The last leadership election was held in 2005 after the resignation of Jim Wallace, when Stephen defeated Mike Rumbles.

Candidates

Successfully nominated candidates

The following MSPs gained the required one nomination from a fellow MSP, and were therefore candidates for the leadership:

Mike Rumbles - MSP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine
Tavish Scott - MSP for Shetland and former transport minister
Ross Finnie MSP for West of Scotland regional list and former environment minister^[2]

Suggested candidates

Jeremy Purvis - MSP for Tweeddale, Ettrick and Lauderdale, had also been considered to be a possible contender, but he declined to run after Scott and Finnie announced their candidacies.^[3]

Result

The result of the leadership election was announced on 26 August 2008; turnout was 61%.

**First round**
Candidate		Votes
Candidate		Votes	%
	Tavish Scott Y	1,450	59.0%
	Ross Finnie	568	21.3%
	Mike Rumbles	439	17.9%
Turnout		2,457	61.0%
Tavish Scott elected leader Source: BBC News

References

Scottish Liberal Democrats

Headquarters: 4 Clifton Terrace, Edinburgh, EH12 5DR

Leaders	Malcolm Bruce (1988–1992) Jim Wallace (1992–2005) Nicol Stephen (2005–2008) Tavish Scott (2008–2011) Willie Rennie (2011–)

Deputy Leaders	Michael Moore (2002–2010) Jo Swinson (2010–2012) Alistair Carmichael (2012–)

Presidents	Russell Johnston (1988–1994) Malcolm Bruce (2000–2015) Eileen McCartin (2016-)

MSP Group (5)	Alex Cole-Hamilton Liam McArthur Willie Rennie Mike Rumbles Tavish Scott

MP Group (1)	Alistair Carmichael

Organisation	Association of Scottish Liberal Democrat Councillors and Campaigners Liberal Youth Scotland

In Government	First Second

Leadership elections	1992 2005 2008 2011

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