Close finish in City Centre by-election

As the counting proceeds this morning in the City Chambers for the replacement for SNP David Beckett who resigned to pursue a course at Harvard, all that is certain is that the result will be very close.

The turnout was 23.4% with 3455 votes cast.  The votes are shown below and will be updated as they become available:

First Preference votes:
1st   837 - Conservative
2nd  797 - SNP
3rd  682 - Labour
4th   494 - Green
5th   394 - Ind. Carson
6th   251 - Lib Dem

After redistribution of Lib Dem second preferences
1st   904 (including +67) Conservative
2nd  825 (+ 28) SNP
3rd   716 (+34) Labour
4th   576 (+82) Green
5th   402 (+8)  Ind. Carson

After redistribution of Independent John Carson's 402 votes
1st   1043 (+139)  Conservative
2nd   893 (+68)   SNP
3rd    745 (+29)  Labour
4th    576 (+59)  Green

After redistribution of Green Party's 576 votes
1st  1110 (+67) Conservative
2nd 1081 (+188) SNP
3rd  968  (+223) Labour

After redistribution of the Labour Party's votes
1st  1368 (+ 287)  SNP  Winner
2nd 1264 (+154) Conservative

Update 13:30:  See new post for summary result here.
Update 13:45:  The 2007 result can be found here.
Update 16:00:  To correct error in SNP figure after first transfer