Scottish elections provide 'lessons for UK'

A new report into the Scottish elections fiasco has said there are lessons to be learnt for the whole of the UK.

 

Following major problems with May's Scottish Parliament and local polls, the Electoral Commission has come up with a number of recommendations to avoid a repeat of the situation.

 

Canadian elections expert Ron Gould was tasked by the commission with finding solutions to the problems that arose from holding the elections at the same time and other complications.

 

The report recommended that future Scottish Parliament and local elections are separated, "preferably" by a period of about two years.

 

"Fragmented and antiquated" election legislation should undergo a radical overhaul, and there should be a six-month cut-off period for new legislation before an election, it said.

 

The wider application of the recommendations for elections in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as Scotland, was also strongly suggested.

 

"The commission's view is that the current arrangements for electoral administration across the UK are no longer capable to delivering elections in a consistent and equitable fashion, as many of the issues examined by Gould apply not just in Scotland, but in the rest of the UK as well.

 

"It is now time for a wide-ranging examination of electoral administration to be held encompassing the recommendations of the Gould report; the applicability of these recommendations to other parts of the UK; and the views of the committee on Standards in Public Life relating to regional electoral officers for Great Britain; and the government's recent response to these proposals."

 

The report went on: "It is our view that this matter is urgent and must proceed immediately."

 

Gould's report criticised politicians and said voters were treated as an "afterthought" in the planning and organisation of the May 3 elections.

 

Election night descended into chaos as more than 100,000 ballot papers were rejected before the SNP were eventually declared winners around 20 hours after the polls closed.

 

Voters had used a new design of Holyrood voting paper and a new method of voting in council elections - both of which were also counted electronically for the first time in Scotland.