Forth: SNP gamble almost cost leader Steve Cardownie

DEPUTY council leader Steve Cardownie faced a battle to be re-elected for the ward he has held since 1988 after a high risk gamble to get a second SNP candidate in backfired.

The SNP Edinburgh leader was forced to rely on eighth preference votes to get re-elected last in his own ward after an attempt to get colleague George Gordon in failed.

Mr Gordon had polled significantly more votes than Labour incomer Vicki Redpath but she won on transferred votes.

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Afterwards he told the Evening News: “Our defeated candidate had 400 more first preference votes than the Labour candidate Vicki Redpath but at the end of the day that’s the system.

“She’s been elected at the expense of the Liberal Democrats. If we had just stood one candidate, myself, we would have sailed it, but we stood to and it came very close.”