Aberdeenshire East


Aberdeenshire East is a county constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering part of the council area of Aberdeenshire. Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, it elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament by the first past the post method of election. It is also one of ten constituencies in the North East Scotland electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the ten constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.
The seat was created at the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, and largely consists of areas that were in the former constituency of Gordon. It has been held by Gillian Martin of the Scottish National Party since the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.

Electoral region

The other nine constituencies of the North East Scotland region are: Aberdeen Central, Aberdeen Deeside and North Kincardine, Aberdeen Donside, Aberdeenshire West, Angus North and Mearns, Angus South, Banffshire and Buchan Coast, Dundee City East and Dundee City West. The region covers all of the Aberdeen City council area, the Aberdeenshire council area, the Angus council area, the Dundee City council area and part of the Moray council area.

Constituency boundaries and council area

Aberdeenshire is represented by four constituencies in the Scottish Parliament: Aberdeenshire East, Aberdeenshire West, Angus North and Mearns and Banffshire and Buchan Coast.
Aberdeenshire East was created at the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election, and largely consists of areas that were in the former constituency of Gordon. The boundaries of the seat were slightly ammended at the second periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2025, with minor changes in the boundary with the Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency in the area around the villages of Maud and Mintlaw. These changes were implemented by Boundaries Scotland in order to address the variation from the electoral quota for these two constituencies, and to recognise community ties in this area. At this review, the following wards of Aberdeenshire Council were used to redefine the seat:

Member of the Scottish Parliament

First contested in the 2011 election, the seat was won by Alex Salmond, who was then First Minister, and had previously held the Gordon seat, from which Aberdeenshire East was largely formed. Salmond had also previously been MSP for Banff and Buchan from 1999 until resigning in 2001, as well as representing the Westminster seat of Banff and Buchan from 1987 until retiring from the British Parliament in 2010.

Election results

2020s

This was the largest Conservative vote share increase at the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.