LOCAL democracy is alive and well in Scotland judging by the number of

nominations for next month's regional and island council elections.

When the deadline passed yesterday afternoon, a total of 1650 people

had put themselves forward as putative councillors in the 537 wards --

even though most of the authorities involved will be replaced by

single-tier councils in two years.

Labour, the Conservatives, and the Scottish National Party all claimed

last night to have notched up record tallies of nominations. However,

the nationalists again had the largest number of candidates -- 370 -- a

feat they also achieved in 1990 and 1986. Labour and the Tories each had

349 and the Scottish Liberal Democrats recorded 264.

The Western Isles, traditionally a non-partisan zone, will have its

first official Labour councillors on May 5. Former independent member Mr

George Lonie and new candidate Iain Macsween will both be unopposed, and

there are three other Labour nominees.

Meanwhile, two Liberal Democrat candidates in Tayside were

disqualified last night after council officials discovered that their

proposers had already nominated other individuals.

Nominations12, 13

Leader comment16