A row for an alleged anti-English rant didn’t appear to have any negative impact on councillor Dave Doogan’s campaign.
The SNP candidate, who was depute leader of the council administration, made a public apology last week after criticism over a speech – delivered in Gaelic – which made references to “quislings” and “red coats”.
He said sorry for the “negative publicity” his speech caused, but did not apologise for the words themselves.
The episode did no harm to his campaign, however, and he was re-elected with 1,290 votes.
Conservative Harry Coates was also voted in, alongside the SNP’s John Rebbeck.
Mr Doogan said: “Obviously, this isn’t ideal, but we have Conservatives who think they are going to run away with Perth and we aren’t going to let that happen.
“Clearly, the SNP are far from finished. We’ve increased our numbers in the city centre.”
He added: “We still have an administration to sort out and we want people to know that the good work the previous administration started will continue.”
Result
ELECTED: Dave Doogan, Harry Coates and John Rebbeck
Philip Brown (Lib Dem) 126
Harry Coates (Conservative) 933
Dave Doogan (SNP) 1,290
Sam Finlayson (independent) 91
Arthur Frater (independent) 37
Callum Gillies (Labour) 577
Elspeth MacLachlan (independent) 113
John Rebbeck (SNP) 480
Turn-out: 41.1%.
