Edinburgh general election votes to be counted on time

Published on Saturday 13 March 2010 11:11

ALL votes in Edinburgh at the general election will be counted overnight despite an earlier threat to delay the results until the next day.

Returning officers had warned the counting of votes could take longer because of new rules requiring closer checks on postal votes.

They suggested counts could be put off until the morning after instead of taking place as soon as the polls close.

But new legislation would require returning officers to provide clear justification if they decided to postpone the count.

Now they have said "local factors" should determine the timing of the count.

Edinburgh's returning officer Tom Aitchison said he had decided the counting would take place overnight.

But he warned: "We could expect results to come in around two or three hours later, which means the earliest would be around 2am."