Tom McCabe Labour Edward McAvoy Labour Elections to South Lanarkshire Council were held on 6 May 1999, alongside elections to the Scottish Parliament.

This was the second election following the local government reforms in 1994 and the first following the Third Statutory Reviews of Electoral Arrangements which resulted in six fewer seats from the previous election.

[1] The council remained under Labour control following the election - they won seven fewer seats and collected 7% less of the overall vote share than in 1995, but with less seats available their percentage loss was only 3%, and the number of votes they collected increased substantially due to the higher voter turnout, which went up from 107,833 (46.4% turnout) in 1995 to 139,564 (59.2% turnout), an increase of 29%; this was at least partly attributable to the interest in the new Scottish Parliament - the 1995 election had not been held in conjunction with votes for any other body.

The SNP and Conservative vote numbers also each nearly doubled, but with far less dramatic gains in terms of their vote share and seats.

In those circumstances, the Liberal Democrats polling almost the same numbers as four years earlier could be seen as the most disappointing outcome for a major party in South Lanarkshire, in contrast to their positive overall results across Scotland on the night.