Glasgow voters to take part in three by-elections
It's after the resignation of three Labour councillors
Voters in three wards across Glasgow will go to the polls today to elect councillors.
Following the resignations of three Labour members, by-elections are being held in Maryhill, Drumchapel/Anniesland and North East.
Polling stations will be open between 7am and 10pm.
At the last council elections in 2022, Labour picked up the most first preference votes in Drumchapel/Anniesland and North East while the SNP came out on top in Maryhill.
These by-elections are the first to be held in Glasgow since the UK election in July when Labour returned to power at Westminster.
That success sparked the resignations of Patricia Ferguson (Drumchapel/Anniesland) and Maureen Burke (North East), as they were elected as two of the city’s new MPs.
Keiran O’Neill (Maryhill) then announced he was also stepping down after taking a job with the GMB union in London.
All parties currently represented on Glasgow City Council — the SNP, Labour, Greens and Conservatives — have selected candidates for the three by-election, as have the Liberal Democrats and Reform UK.
The SNP’s candidates are Adekemi Giwa, who runs a social enterprise, in Drumchapel/Anniesland, Kilian Riley in North East and Lorna Finn,a former SNP national secretary, in Maryhill.
Labour has picked Davena Rankin, a former Conservative candidate who stood in the Glasgow East by-election in 2008, as its representative in Drumchapel/Anniesland.
She joined Labour in 2011.
Ex-Labour councillor Marie Garrity, who previously represented Baillieston and East Centre, is standing for the party in Maryhill while Mary McNab, a candidate for Labour in Baillieston in 2022, is returning to fight for the North East seat.
Glasgow Greens selected Ellie Gomersall, a former co-chair of the Scottish Greens and an ex-president of NUS Scotland, as the party’s candidate in Maryhill.
Chris Lavelle is the Greens representative in Drumchapel/Anniseland and Hayley McDonald will stand for the party in North East.
Glasgow’s Conservative group has picked Steven Morrison (Drumchapel/Anniesland), Susan McCourt (Maryhill) and Thomas Haddow (North East) to represent the party.
At the general election in July, the Greens came third in all six Glasgow constituencies while Reform finished above the Tories.
Former SNP councillor Elspeth Kerr who quit the party in 2020 and sat as an independent until losing her seat at the 2022 election is bidding to get re-elected in Drumchapel/Anniesland.
Alba is standing a candidate in Maryhill and the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition have a representative in the North East ward.
Currently, there are 36 SNP and 31 Labour councillors in Glasgow.
The Greens have 11 councillors while the Conservatives have two and there is one independent.
A fourth by-election is set to be held in Partick East/Kelvindale on December 5 after the death of long-serving SNP councillor Kenny McLean.
A full list of candidates for November 21 by-elections:
Drumchapel/Anniesland:
Adekemi Giwa, SNP
Elspeth Kerr, Independent
Christopher Lavelle, Scottish Greens
Allan Douglas Lyons, Reform UK
Steven Morrison, Conservative
Davena Rankin, Labour
Michael Edward Shields, Liberal Democrats
Maryhill:
Nick Durie, Alba
Lorna Finn, SNP
Marie Garrity, Labour
Ellie Gomersall, Greens
Susan McCourt, Conservative
David McGowan, Reform
Daniel O’Malley, Liberal Democrats
North East:
Thomas Haddow, Conservative
Anne McAllister, STUC
Hayley McDonald, Greens
Robert McGregor, Reform
Peter McLaughlin, Liberal Democrats
Mary McNab, Labour
Kilian Riley, SNP
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