The fairly safe Holyrood seat of Moray was retained by the SNP in a by-election caused by the death of Margaret Ewing. Richard Lochhead managed to increase the Nationalists' share of the vote to 12,653, with the Conservatives in second place. It was a decent result however for Liberal Democrat candidate Linda Gorn, who managed to win an additional 2,000 votes and leap-frog Labour into third place. Another sign that the public is becoming increasingly fed up with Labour, this was the second by-election disaster in just a few months following the spectacular Lib Dem win in Dunfermline. The Lib Dems were also just 1,000 votes behind the Tories.

Scottish Parliamentary by-election, Moray, 27th April 2006

Richard Lochead (Scottish National Party) 12,653
Mary Scanlon (Scottish Conservatives) 6,268
Linda Gorn (Scottish Liberal Democrats) 5,310
Sandy Keith (Scottish Labour) 2,696
Meliville Brown (NHS First) 493