Offering clarity

Published on 11/07/2012 00:00

I can assure Sheila Chambers (Letters, 10 July) that the voting system for the forthcoming independence referendum certainly has been considered. Indeed, The Scotsman has published several articles on the topic.

Ms Chambers makes clear that we are faced with a multi-option decision: status quo, more devolution or independence.

But her suggestion of a multi-option question with preferential voting and single transferable vote counting will not work. With that approach, the option with the greatest overall support might be eliminated.

There are other ways of counting preferential votes, but they all have serious defects.

Those who want the technical details will find them online in the paper I submitted to the UK government’s referendum consultation. It has also been published on the Future of Scotland website.

The only way to obtain a clear and decisive outcome when there are three options is to ask two questions.

Two questions could be asked on one ballot paper or two questions could be asked, one at a time, in a two-part referendum. Different questions would be appropriate for these two approaches, but either would deliver a clear and decisive result.

James Gilmour

East Parkside

Edinburgh