Kintyre and Islands by-election candidates
Five candidates are standing in the by-election on Thursday July 18 for the Kintyre and the Islands ward, following the death of Liberal Democrat councillor Robin Currie, who represented the area for almost 40 years.
Ward 2, with an electorate of just under 6,000 people, includes the mainland surrounding Carradale to Kilberry, and the Isles of Islay, Jura, Colonsay and Gigha.
Two ex-councillors are giving it another go: Donald Kelly, who had represented the South Kintyre ward since 2001, previously as a Conservative but latterly as an independent. Mr Kelly resigned from the council in 2023, triggering a by-election won by his daughter, independent councillor Jennifer Kelly, now his election agent.
He is competing against a second veteran councillor to voluntarily leave office. Anne Horn, an SNP councillor for Kintyre and the Islands from 2007 until she stood down in 2022, hopes to return to her old seat for her party, aided by her election agent, SNP councillor for South Kintyre, John Armour.
Ms Horn is joined by two new hopefuls: Douglas MacDonald for the Liberal Democrats, and Alan McManus for the Freedom
Alliance, a UK Libertarian party.
Daniel Hampsey is the election agent for the fifth and final candidate, Elizabeth Redman, who is standing for the Conservatives - the party once represented by her son, the now independent councillor for Kintyre and the Islands, Alastair Redman. If victorious, it would create a second mother and son twosome in Argyll and Bute Council, in the same ward, but in different parties.
The council already boasts one mother and son duo: Amanda Hampsey, Oban South and the Isles, and Daniel Hampsey, Dunoon.