2022 Moray Council election

At the previous election in 2017, the Scottish National Party (SNP) won the most seats on the council, forming the largest block, but were 5 seats short of a majority. The Conservatives won the next largest amount of seats, and increased their vote share by 18.6%, gaining 5 seats. Two Independent councillors lost their seats, and so did 2 Labour councillors. Following the result a Conservative-Independent administration was formed, with an Independent councillor being appointed council leader. However, in May 2018, the Conservative-Independent administration collapsed. One month later, the SNP group formed a minority administration, following negotiations with other groups.

Source:^[3][4]

The election used the 8 wards created following the fifth statutory review of electoral arrangements conducted by Local Government Boundary Commission for Scotland in 2016, with 26 councillors elected. Each ward elected either three or four councillors, using the single transferable vote (STV) electoral system – a form of proportional representation – where candidates are ranked in order of preference.

There were two by-elections during the 2017-22 term. One by-election was held in the Elgin City North ward in May 2017, which resulted in a Conservative gain from Independent.^[5] The other by-election was held in the Keith and Cullen ward in October 2019, which also resulted in a Conservative gain from Independent.^[6] One Conservative councillor left the Conservative group in October 2017, he sat as an Independent for the remainder of the term.^[7]

Source:^[4]

The total number of candidates fell from 45 in 2017 to 42. Unlike in 2017, the Conservatives stood the most candidates, standing 11, an increase of 3, while the SNP stood 4 less candidates compared to 2017 at 9. The number of independent candidates fell sharply, with only 6 independents standing, compared to 17 in 2017. Liberal Democrats also stood 6 candidates, an increase of 3, while Labour stood 5, also an increase of 3. The Greens stood 3, an increase of 1, and the Scottish Family Party and the Sovereignty Party also stood 1 candidate each.

2022 Moray Council election result

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Conservative	11	3	0	3	42.3	36.2	10,698	0.1
	SNP	8	0	1	1	30.8	36.0	10,613	4.4
	Labour	3	2	0	2	11.5	12.3	3,641	8.0
	Independent	2	0	6	6	7.7	7.9	2,327	16.2
	Liberal Democrats	1	1	0	1	3.9	3.8	1,121	2.6
	Green	1	1	0	1	3.9	3.4	1,001	0.8
	Scottish Family	0	0	0		0.0	0.3	99	New
	Sovereignty	0	0	0		0.0	0.1	23	New
Total		26						29,523

Source:^[8]

Note: Votes are the sum of first preference votes across all council wards. The net gain/loss and percentage changes relate to the result of the previous Scottish local elections on 4 May 2017. This is because STV has an element of proportionality which is not present unless multiple seats are being elected. This may differ from other published sources showing gain/loss relative to seats held at the dissolution of Scotland's councils.^[9][10]

Source:^[8]

Below is a list of seats which elected a different party or parties from 2017 in order to highlight the change in political composition of the council from the previous election. The list does not include defeated incumbents who resigned or defected from their party and subsequently failed re-election while the party held the seat.

Source:^[4][8]