BREAKING: Inverness South elects Independent candidate Duncan McDonald to replace Colin Aitken
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Voters in the Inverness South by-election have elected Independent candidate Duncan McDonald as their new councillor.
The ballot was held after Liberal Democrat Colin Aitken resigned from the council back in February so this marks a loss for the party, which still had a strong showing.
The most popular candidates after the first preference votes were announced were - Jonathan Chartier (LibDem) on 652 ballots, Gordon Shanks (SNP) who secured 641 and the eventual winner - the new Councillor McDonald (Independent).
In all there were eight candidates from seven parties, they were Jimmy Duncan of the Alba Party (107 votes); Andrew MacDonald of the Sovereignty Party (41); the Scottish Greens Arun Sharma (237) and Scottish Labour’s Ron Stevenson (364).
The turnout was low - just 26.3 per cent of the 12,664 people registered to vote with 3325 verified ballots.
Cllr McDonald won at stage eight of the contest under the transferable vote system.
The Sovereignty Party was excluded at stage two, Alba at stage three, the Greens at four, followed by the Labour Party at stage five, then the Tories, the SNP were excluded at stage seven and finally the Liberal Democrats.
More to follow.
