Scottish National Party leadership election, 2004

Scottish National Party leadership election, 2004
Scotland
3 September 2004
Turnout 79.23%
 
Candidate Alex Salmond Roseanna Cunningham Mike Russell
Votes 4,952 953 631
National Convener before election

John Swinney

 Elected National Convener

Alex Salmond

There was a Scottish National Party leadership election in 2004 following the resignation of John Swinney as National Convener of the Scottish National Party (SNP). The election saw the return of Alex Salmond to the party fore, and a deal between Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon saw Sturgeon drop out of the leadership race and instead run for the Depute leadership on a joint campaign with Salmond. Both Salmond and Sturgeon won their respective positions in the first round.[1]

Election

Elected in 2000, Swinney had presided over a contested leadership, marred by electoral failure. Following a disappointing European election result, Swinney resigned on 22 June 2004.

The fight over who was to succeed Swinney saw the re-emergence of former leader Alex Salmond, who entered the race despite having repeatedly denied any ambitions to run. Most famously, Salmond quipped in June 2004 that "If nominated I'll decline. If drafted I'll defer. And if elected I'll resign."[2] Salmond launched his campaign less than a month later, on 15 July.[2]

After Salmond announced his campaign for the leadership, Nicola Sturgeon dropped her bid, and ran instead for the Depute Leadership. The two ran on a joint campaign. Kenny MacAskill dropped his bid for Depute, and gave his support to Sturgeon.[2]

Ultimately the Salmond-Sturgeon campaign was successful, and both candidates won in the first round.[1]

Result

The election was the first SNP election to use the one-person-one-vote postal voting system.[3]

Leadership Election

Candidate Votes[4]
Votes %
Alex Salmond Green tick 4,952
75.8%
Roseanna Cunningham 953
14.6%
Mike Russell 631
9.7%

Depute Leadership Election

Candidate Votes[5][1]
Votes %
Nicola Sturgeon Green tick 3,521
53.9%
Fergus Ewing 1,605
24.6%
Christine Grahame 1,410
21.6%

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Salmond named as new SNP leader". 3 September 2004.
  2. 1 2 3 "Salmond launches leadership bid". BBC News.
  3. ↑ Electing and Ejecting Party Leaders in Britain.
  4. ↑ SCOTTISH NATIONAL PARTY (SNP) LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS 1969-2014
  5. ↑ Declaration of Leadership Election Results
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