Galloway and Upper Nithsdale (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Not to be confused with Galloway and Upper Nithsdale (UK Parliament constituency).

Galloway and Upper Nithsdale
Former county constituency for the Scottish Parliament
Galloway and Upper Nithsdale shown within the South of Scotland electoral region and the region shown within Scotland
Former constituency
Created	1999
Abolished	2011
Council area	Dumfries and Galloway

Galloway and Upper Nithsdale was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. This constituency was ablished for the 2011 election, with 78.4% of the constituency being incorporated into the new Galloway and West Dumfries (Scottish Parliament constituency), with the rest becoming part of the Dumfriesshire (Scottish Parliament constituency).

Electoral region

See also: South of Scotland Scottish Parliament region

Constituency boundaries and council area

The Galloway and Upper Nithsdale constituency was created at the same time as the Scottish Parliament, in 1999, with the name and boundaries of an existing Westminster constituency. In 2005, however, Scottish Westminster (House of Commons) constituencies were mostly replaced with new constituencies.

Member of the Scottish Parliament

Alex Fergusson represented the constituency from the 2003 election until its abolition in 2011, having previously been an MSP for the South of Scotland regional list from 1999 to 2003. Originally elected as a Conservative, he was the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament from 2007–2011, a post which required him to relinquish party allegiance.

Election		Member	Party
style="background-color: Template:Scottish National Party/meta/color" |	1999	Alasdair Morgan	Scottish National Party
style="background-color: Template:Scottish Conservative Party/meta/color" |	2003	Alex Fergusson	Conservative
style="background-color: Template:Scottish Conservative Party/meta/color" |	2007
	2011	Constituency abolished, see Galloway and West Dumfries

Election results

Scottish Parliament election, 2007: Galloway and Upper Nithsdale
Notes:		Blue background denotes the winner of the electorate vote. Pink background denotes a candidate elected from their party list. Yellow background denotes an electorate win by a list member, or other incumbent. A Y or N denotes status of any incumbent, win or lose respectively.
Party		Candidate		Votes	%	±%	Party votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Y Alex Fergusson		13,387	44.16	+5.64	10,550	34.62
	SNP	Alasdair Morgan		10,054	33.16	-5.02	9,163	30.07
	Labour	Stephen Hodgson		4,935	16.28	+1.66	6,078	19.95
	Liberal Democrats	Alastair Cooper		1,631	5.38	-0.90	1,672	5.49
	Independent	Sandy Richardson		311	1.03	+1.03
	Scottish Green						1,106	3.63
	Scottish Senior Citizens						513	1.68
	BNP						261	0.86
	Scottish Christian						233	0.76
	UKIP						233	0.76
	Solidarity						192	0.63
	Socialist Labour						172	0.56
style="color:inherit;background-color: Template:Independent (politician)/meta/color; width: 5px;" |	Independent - Paddy Scott Hogg						97	0.32
	Scottish Socialist						88	0.29
	CPA						69	0.23
	Scottish Voice						45	0.15
Informal votes				977			823
Total valid votes				30,318			30,472
Turnout				31,295
	Conservative hold		Majority	3,333	10.99	+10.66

Scottish Parliament election, 2003: Galloway and Upper Nithsdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Conservative	Alex Fergusson	11,332	38.2	+ 8.0
	SNP	Alasdair Morgan	11,233	37.9	−1.4
	Labour	Norma Harte	4,299	14.5	−5.9
	Liberal Democrats	Neil Wallace	1,847	6.2	−3.9
	Scottish Socialist	Joy Cherkaoui	709	2.4	+ 2.3
Majority			99	0.3
	Conservative gain from SNP		Swing	4.6

Scottish Parliament election, 1999: Galloway and Upper Nithsdale
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	SNP	Alasdair Morgan	13,873	39.3	n/a
	Conservative	Alex Fergusson	10,672	30.2	n/a
	Labour	Jim Stevens	7,209	20.4	n/a
	Liberal Democrats	Joan Mitchell	3,562	10.1	n/a
Majority			3,201	9.1	n/a