Dumfries and Galloway's election in numbers

Low turnout

TURNOUT was down across Dumfries and Galloway at last week's Scottish Parliament Elections. Just over half of the electorate in the region attended a polling station on May 7. In Galloway and West Dumfries voter turnout was 51.9 per cent, with 30,105 votes cast – 10,803 of these were submitted by post. Over in Dumfriesshire the turnout was slightly lower at 51.7 per cent. Votes were cast by 32,751 people, with 12,641 voting by post. Turnout locally is markedly down on the last Holyrood elections in 2021 when it was 64.9 per cent and 66 per cent, respectively. Across the South of Scotland, 323,410 votes were cast for regional members seats – 53.2 per cent of the electorate. This is a decrease from 2021 when 65.3 per cent of those eligible voted. Speaking on Friday, shortly after the figures were announced, Conservative MSP Finlay Carson described it as ‘disappointing’ and lower than they would have liked. He admitted ten elections in 12 years could be taking its toll on the public and said: “People are feeling scunnered.” [caption id="attachment_68465" align="aligncenter" width="292"]

THE NUMBERS . . . voter turnout was low[/caption]

Majorities slashed

IN the Dumfriesshire Constituency Stephen Thompson and the SNP cut the gap between themselves and the Scottish Conservatives. Tory MSP Craig Hoy was elected after getting 11,370 votes, but his majority was cut to 1108 – in 2021 the Tories were 4066 votes ahead of the SNP. And in Galloway and West Dumfries Finlay Carson held on to the seat after receiving 11,502 votes – a majority of 1599 over the SNP. Five years ago, however, Carson was elected with a majority of 2635.

Meanwhile, emerging party Reform UK claimed 5783 votes in Dumfriesshire, just under 18 per cent of the vote share, and 4674 votes in West Galloway and Dumfries – 16 per cent of the total vote. Vote share in the two constituencies is shown in the pie charts below. [caption id="attachment_68463" align="aligncenter" width="680"]

VOTE SHARE . . . in Galloway and West Dumfries[/caption] [caption id="attachment_68464" align="aligncenter" width="680"]

DUMFRIESSHIRE CONSTITUENCY . . . the vote share among parties[/caption]