Cowdenbeath is a county constituency of the Scottish Parliament covering part of the council area of Fife. It elects one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the first past the post method of election. Under the additional-member electoral system used for elections to the Scottish Parliament, it is also one of nine constituencies in the Mid Scotland and Fife electoral region, which elects seven additional members, in addition to the nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole. The town of Cowdenbeath was formerly part of the Dunfermline East constituency which was abolished by the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries 2011.
The current Member is Annabelle Ewing of the Scottish National Party, elected in 2016, following her defeat of Alex Rowley.
The other eight constituencies of the Mid Scotland and Fife region are: Clackmannanshire and Dunblane, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes, Fife North East, Perthshire North, Perthshire South and Kinross-shire and Stirling. The region covers all of the Clackmannanshire council area, all of the Fife council area, all of the Perth and Kinross council area and all of the Stirling council area.
Fife is represented in the Scottish Parliament by five constituencies: Cowdenbeath, Dunfermline, Kirkcaldy, Mid Fife and Glenrothes, and Fife North East.
The constituency of Cowdenbeath was created by the first periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries ahead of the 2011 Scottish Parliament election from the following electoral wards of Fife Council:
At the second periodic review of Scottish Parliament boundaries in 2025 the seat boundaries were very slightly altered by a minor change of the boundary with the Dunfermline constituency in order to match ward boundaries (no electors were affected by this boundary change).