By-elections to replace former MPs Stephen Flynn and Stephen Gethins will be held on Thursday 18 June, with nominations opening on Wednesday and closing at 16:00 on Friday. The contests will decide who takes over the Westminster seats of Aberdeen South and Arbroath and Broughty Ferry.
Flynn, the SNP's former Westminster leader and MP for Aberdeen South, became an MSP for Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine earlier this month. Gethins, who previously represented Arbroath and Broughty Ferry at Westminster, was elected as the SNP's new MSP for Dundee City East. Both men had to step down from Westminster in order to take up their seats at Holyrood.
The by-elections are being held just weeks after both men won seats in the Scottish Parliament on 7 May, and the numbers from those contests show how narrow one race was and how one-sided the other became. Flynn came in ahead of the Conservatives with a slim majority of 1,244, or 3.6%, while Gethins won the Dundee City East seat with 12,969 votes, beating Scottish Labour by 8,177 votes and taking 30.8% more than his nearest rival.
That leaves two Westminster constituencies without their former members and two local races now set on a tight timetable. Nominations will close on Friday at 16:00, and the result on 18 June will determine who fills the seats vacated when Flynn and Gethins chose Holyrood over Westminster.
