The local government elections held on 4 May 2017 saw 2,572 nominations put forward and 1,227 councillors elected (47.7% of candidates). Turnout was 46.0% excluding rejected ballot papers, or 46.9% including rejected papers.

SPICe Briefing SB 17/35 Local Government Elections 2017 provides more information on the local government elections.

All the figures in this briefing for the 2017 local elections, unless otherwise specified, are those provided to the Electoral Management Board for Scotland.

Figure 1 shows council seats by party (this refers to political parties as well as groups e.g. independent councillors) and by local authority after the 2017 local elections.

Table 1 shows the different types of administrations across Scotland's councils. 12 councils have a minority administration, with the Scottish National Party (SNP) and Scottish Labour (Labour) each leading six councils. There are also 17 coalitions, with a SNP-Labour administration leading five councils.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, the Shetland Islands and the Orkney Islands, where independent candidates won a majority of seats (74%, 95% and 86% respectively), are also led by independent councillors.

* Aberdeen Labour

Prior to the 2017 local government elections, there were 4 Labour-Conservative coalitions (Aberdeen City, East Lothian, South Ayrshire and Stirling). There are none post-2017 local elections.

Figure 2 compares the make-up of council administrations before and after the 2017 local government elections, and shows the council leader's party as well as the largest party in terms of council seats.

* The BBC reported on 17 May 2017 that Scottish Labour's executive committee suspended Labour councillors in Aberdeen after they failed to stand down from a coalition with the Conservatives and Independents.³BBC. (2017). Labour councillors in Aberdeen suspended over Tory coalition. Retrieved from <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-39940006" target="_blank">http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-39940006</a> [accessed 27 June 2017]

Figure 2 shows the political make-up of council administrations before and after the 2017 local government elections.

Table 3 shows the Councils with a minority administration, and the share of seats won by the party in that administration.

Of the 12 councils led by a minority, six are SNP and six are Labour. East Dunbartonshire has the weakest minority administration in terms of share of council seats, with the SNP only holding 31.8% of seats. The strongest minority administration is in Glasgow, with SNP councillors holding 45.9% of seats.

In all but three councils, the minority party leading the administration also won the highest share of seats in the local government elections. In North Lanarkshire and West Lothian however, the party leading the council (Labour) got less seats than the SNP. In North Ayrshire there is a Labour minority administration and Labour and the SNP got the same number of seats.

Table 4 shows the number of leaders in different parties. Fife has chosen two c0-leaders (SNP and Labour) so there are 33 council leaders in total. The SNP has the highest number of leaders, at 14, followed by independent councillors, six of whom are council leaders.

Table 5 shows the councils where the party which won the highest share of seats did not end up in the make-up of the council, or if the two biggest parties got the same number of seats, one was excluded from the political administration. This was the case in eleven councils.