Local government elections: Liberal Democrats lose leader in the capital

The Liberal Democrats have lost their leader and a total of 14 seats in the capital in the council elections.

Jenny Dawe, the leader of the City of Edinburgh Council since 2007, was not voted into her new ward of Meadows and Morningside. She had been moved to the "safe" seat from her former constituency of Drumbrae and Gyle.

The council has been run by a Lib Dem and SNP coalition for the past five years.

But by the time all 17 wards were announced on Friday, they had lost 14 seats across the city. In one ward, their candidate received less votes than a man dressed as a penguin.

The seats lost in Drumbrae/Gyle, Corstorphine/Murrayfield, Forth, Inverleith, Sighthill/Gorgie, Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart, Meadows/Morningside, Leith, Leith Walk, Craigentinny/Duddingston, Liberton/Gilmerton, Southside/Newington, Portobello/Craigmillar and the City Centre were picked up by Labour, the SNP and the Green party.

In the end, Labour have 20 councillors, the SNP have 18, Conservatives have 11, the Green party have six and the LibDems have three.

Ms Dawe told STV News she had been preparing to be voted out.

She said: "I had a bad vibe about this, I had my boxes all packed with notices as to where they are to go so I'll think about what to do next over the next few days.

"We'll regroup. We're well used in the Liberal Democrats and the Liberal Party before to being at rock bottom and pulling ourselves up and we are sure we will go away and lick our wounds we still think that we have policies that are right for the people of this city and for the UK.

"Not a great day to go from 17 councillors five years ago to three and we don't know anymore after that. I don't think you can get much lower than that."

Steve Cardownie, the SNP deputy leader of the council, was returned to his seat in Forth.

The leader of the Labour party group at the council, Andrew Burns, retained his Fountainbridge/Craiglockhart seat and leader of the Conservative party group, Jeremy Balfour also kept his Corstorphine/Murrayfield seat.

IN DETAIL

More About Edinburgh Election 2012

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