2000 Sunderland City Council election

The 2000 Sunderland Council election took place on 4 May 2000 to elect members of Sunderland Metropolitan Borough Council in Tyne and Wear, England. One third of the council was up for election and the Labour party stayed in overall control of the council.[1]

After the election, the composition of the council was

• Labour 62
• Conservative 10
• Liberal Democrat 2
• Liberal 1[2]

Voting trial

After the 1999 election saw turnout drop as low as 12% in one ward, Sunderland became one of 31 councils which trialed ways of increasing turnout.[3] Sunderland introduced mobile polling stations and also had polling booths in 3 libraries in the week before the election.[3] Due to the early voting a student was able to legally vote while still 17 years old as she turned 18 on polling day itself.[4]

Election result

The results saw Labour remain in control of the council after losing 2 seats to the Conservatives.[5]

Sunderland Local Election Result 2000[6]

Party		Seats	Gains	Losses	Net gain/loss	Seats %	Votes %	Votes	+/−
	Labour	20			-2	80.0
	Conservative	4			+2	16.0
	Liberal Democrats	1			0	4.0

References

1. "Sunderland". BBC News Online. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
2. "Local council results". Financial Times. 6 May 2000. p. 6.
3. Hetherington, Peter (25 April 2000). "Armchair rebels threaten Labour hopes: Local elections: Party workers fear disillusionment and apathy as expected low turnouts prompt experiments to woo the voters". The Guardian. p. 8.
4. "Marking her card at sweet seventeen". The Northern Echo. 29 April 2000. Retrieved 21 December 2010.
5. Carlin, Brendan (6 May 2000). "Labour reflects on bad night that could have been worse". The Northern Echo. p. 3.
6. "Election results: local councils". The Times. 6 May 2000. p. 10.