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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Shannon Milmine

SNP win most seats in South Lanarkshire Council elections

The SNP saw off a challenge from Labour to remain as the main group on South Lanarkshire Council, gaining two seats in last week’s local elections.

Across 20 wards, 64 seats were up for grabs – with a total of nine parties and 10 independent candidates running in the election.

The SNP secured 27 seats (up from 25), with Labour also making gains with 23 (up from 17), while the Conservative's seats were reduced from 11 to seven.

Meanwhile, the Liberal Democrat took three seats (maintaining their previous number), while the Green Party gained its first seat in South Lanarkshire, along with two independent candidates.

Although the SNP still does not command an overall majority, it has led a coalition administration in South Lanarkshire for the last four years.

Council and SNP leader John Ross, was re-elected as member for Hamilton South.

He said: “It’s been a pleasure being with this administration for the last five years. We've achieved an awful lot. We've run a very open council. We've involved everyone in the democratic process and if we do form the next administration we will continue to involve everyone in that democratic process.”

Results were announced by Returning Officer Cleland Sneddon at the John Wright Sports Centre in East Kilbride on Friday.

For a party to win an outright majority, 32 councillors are needed , this was not achieved in the previous elections in 2017 with the SNP forming a minority administration.

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