Tavish Scott wins Liberal Democrat leadership race

By The Newsroom
Published 26th Aug 2008, 01:00 BST
TAVISH Scott will be the new leader of the Scottish Liberal Democrats.

He emerged victorious from a three-way leadership contest whose result was announced today in Edinburgh.

Mr Scott secured 59 per cent of the vote, comfortably beating rivals Ross Finnie and Mike Rumbles.

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The post fell vacant when Nicol Stephen stood down last month for family reasons.

The contest was decided by around 3000 party members.

Mr Scott's victory came on first-preference votes.

The 59 per cent margin easily surpassed the requirement that to win outright, the successful candidate had to achieve 50 per cent of the votes plus one.

He said: "Can I thank the party for this, the gold medal of the Liberal Democrats Olympics."