Edinburgh transport convener loses to list MSP in selection battle for Scottish Parliament elections
Edinburgh's transport convener Stephen Jenkinson has failed in his bid to be selected as a candidate for the Scottish Parliament at next year's elections.
He was beaten by sitting Lothian list MSP Foysol Choudhury in Labour's selection contest to choose one man and one woman to fight the twinned seats of Edinburgh Northern and Edinburgh South Western.
There was a shortlist of two male and two female candidates. Lawyer Catriona Munro topped the poll, with Mr Choudhury in second place, ahead of Cllr Jenkinson and party activist Rebecca Bell.
As the overall winner, Ms Munro got to choose which of the two seats she wanted to fight and she opted for Edinburgh South Western. Mr Chodhury will become candidate in Edinburgh Northern.
Ms Munro was the Labour candidate in the recent Fountainbridge / Craiglockhart council by-election, where she came top in first preferences but narrowly lost to the Lib Dems when votes were redistributed.
She made a bid to be Labour's candidate in the Westminster seat of Edinburgh South West against the SNP's Joanna Cherry at last year's general election, but lost to Scott Arthur, who went on to win the seat.
And back in 2009, she lost by just one vote in the selection contest for Edinburgh East when long-serving Labour MP Gavin Strang announced he was standing down. Sheila Gilmore became the candidate and was elected to Westminster in the following year's general election.
The renamed Edinburgh South Western constituency replaces Edinburgh Pentlands, which has been held by the SNP’s Gordon MacDonald since 2011. Before that it had been represented by Labour’s Iain Gray and then former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie.
Mr MacDonald is standing down and the SNP has chosen the party’s council group leader Simita Kumar as candidate. Lothian list MSP Sue Webber is standing for the Tories.
Edinburgh Northern is a new seat, taking in a chunk of the current Edinburgh Western and part of Edinburgh Northern & Leith. The Lib Dems have high hopes of winning it with their candidate, Forth ward councillor Sanne Dijkstra-Downie. The SNP is fielding councillor Euan Hsylop and the Tories have chosen councillor Christopher Cowdy.