Edinburgh council by-election: Unprecedented events have caused double contest in Colinton/Fairmilehead
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And Edinburgh has its own example of the phenomenon. An extraordinary set of circumstances means that just 10 weeks after electing a new councillor, voters in the city's Colinton/Fairmilehead ward will go to the polls again this Thursday - to choose two new councillors.
Five days after the November 14 by-election, the ward's SNP councillor Marco Biagi announced he was resigning after being made a Scottish Government special adviser. There was some annoyance about the extra expense and inconvenience of having to hold another by-election so soon, but the SNP said the timing of his appointment was beyond Mr Biagi's control.


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Hide AdBut then three days later, Louise Spence who had won a surprise victory for the Lib Dems in the November 14 by-election, also resigned - after just a week as a councillor.
Her campaign had made much play of the fact she lived in the ward, but party colleagues were furious then to discover her house was up for sale and she was planning to move to Dubai where her husband had got a job.
Representing Edinburgh residents while living in the United Arab Emirates was never going to work. Now it had to be a double by-election.
So what's likely to happen? Will voters punish the Lib Dems for the debacle? And if so, who stands to benefit?
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Hide AdLabour wasted no time in highlighting what had happened, with a leaflet which included a mock boarding pass in Ms Spence’s name for a flight from Colinton/Fairmilehead to Dubai and a commentary pointing out she would be living closer to the Great Wall of China than her ward.
The ward is traditionally Tory territory - up until 2022, two of the three councillors were Conservative; and in the past it’s where local Tory leaders like Brian Meek and Daphne Sleigh had their seats. So with two seats up for grabs, insiders in all the parties think it’s likely one of them will go to Tory candidate Neil Cuthbert.
The original November 14 by-election was prompted by Labour councillor Scott Arthur’s election as an MP. And Labour finished as runner-up in the contest, which means their candidate Conor Savage should have a good chance.
Lib Dems had never won a seat in Colinton/Fairmilehead before. But despite the fiasco, some say the party’s win in November was so comfortable - 3,751 votes to 2,055 in the final round of counting - that it’s difficult to see a backlash being big enough to stop new candidate Peter Nicholson getting in.
But in this era of unprecedented politics, who knows?
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