Fiasco-hit election cost public an 'astounding' £39m

Published on Sunday 13 April 2008 21:48

THE bill for last year's elections is more than double the previous one, with the cost reaching almost £40 million, an SNP MSP said yesterday.

Keith Brown said that in total, the 2007 Holyrood and local government elections had cost 39.26 million. He branded that "astounding", adding it was more than twice the total for the 2003 elections, which cost 17.15 million. Mr Brown said almost 9 million of the money spent on the 2007 polls had gone to DRS, the company which provided the electronic counting machines.

There were 146,099 parliamentary ballot papers rejected in last May's Holyrood vote, and a report into the fiasco later found that voters were treated as an "afterthought". Mr Brown, the MSP for Ochil, said: "The amount spent on the last elections was astounding, and it is only now finally coming to light."

He claimed Douglas Alexander, the then Secretary of State for Scotland, and the previous Scottish Executive, had "tripped themselves up".