Elections to be on separate days to avoid chaos repeat

Published on Thursday 10 January 2008 20:48

ELECTIONS for the Scottish Parliament and local government will be held on different days to avoid voter confusion, MSPs agreed last night.

The deal to "decouple" the elections to councils and Holyrood came at the end of a debate in the parliament on an expert report into last May's Scottish elections fiasco.

MSPs also voted to give the parliament more control over the Holyrood polls.

However, ministers later accepted a Labour amendment which watered down demands for complete responsibility to be shifted to Holyrood.

Separate election days for Holyrood and council chambers is the first clear response to recommendations in the report by Ron Gould, the international elections expert.

Until yesterday Labour, which in office insisted the two polls be held together, refused to back the change. But, following the Holyrood debate yesterday, Labour supported the idea, meaning decoupling is a certainty. Only the Liberal Democrats opposed the change, and legislation to move the local government elections – probably to a year after the 2011 Holyrood elections – is now certain to be agreed by MSPs.

Holding local government elections using the single transferable vote system and the Holyrood elections using the additional member proportional system was identified by Mr Gould as a major source of problems last May. Election night was marred by confusion over the systems, leading to more than 140,000 votes being spoiled.

Last night, the SNP hailed the agreement by Labour to a motion which stated there should be "further devolution of executive and legislative powers" as a major step forward.

Bruce Crawford MSP, the SNP's business manager, said that the vote meant Labour now supported Holyrood being handed responsibility for running Scottish Parliament elections.

However, Labour said it supported ideas such as the appointment of a single Scottish returning officer, but would oppose handing control over issues like the election system being given to Holyrood.

Labour is also adamant decisions on holding a referendum on independence will remain Westminster's responsibility.

Iain Smith, of the Lib Dems, said: "The answer is not to tinker with a system that is flawed but to change it to a system the voter has shown they can understand."