What a fiasco

Published on Friday 4 May 2007 11:55

THE Scottish Parliament elections descended into chaos today as an estimated one in ten votes were lost to spoiled ballot papers and counts were abandoned following technical problems.

The count in Edinburgh was called off early this morning, with only two of the city's six constituency seats declared, after the new electronic counting system failed. Counting resumed shortly after midday.

Changes to the design of the Holyrood ballot papers and the fact the national poll was run on the same day as local council elections - which were using the Single Transferable Vote system for the first time - were blamed for widespread confusion. Around 100,000 ballot papers - roughly eight times the figure for the last Holyrood elections - are thought to have been declared spoiled.

In some constituencies, the number of spoiled papers was greater than the winning majority, casting inevitable doubts over the validity of the result.

The Electoral Reform Society said around ten per cent of the votes cast yesterday could be invalid because the ballot papers were not filled in correctly.

The failure of the 4.3 million electronic counting system being used across the country for the first time meant several counts were called off early this morning. Huge delays in processing the papers meant counts across the country were postponed and restarted this afternoon.

West Lothian was among the areas affected, with the counting of votes for the Livingston and Linlithgow seats abandoned until this afternoon.

The problems meant only 81 out of 129 MSPs had been announced by midday. There was widespread anger among candidates and commentators about the fiasco.

The Scotland Office announced an investigation into the problems would be launched "as a matter of urgency".

The independent Electoral Commission will carry out a statutory review into the election, alongside an internal review ordered by DRS Data Services Ltd, the company behind the vote-counting technology.

The Scotland Office spokesman said: "It is important that they (the Electoral Commission) look as a matter of urgency into delays in postal ballots, the high number of spoiled ballot papers, and the performance of the electronic counting machines."

The problems besetting the election became apparent within an hour of counting beginning at 10pm last night. Large numbers of potentially spoiled ballot papers which the computer could not read starting piling up at the Edinburgh count at Ingliston.

Amid growing unease among city council and DRS staff, the rejected papers were put under a special magnifying screen to be analysed more closely.

Then DRS broke the news to Edinburgh returning officer Tom Aitchison that many had been dreading. The master central document software which was supposed to process and display the spreadsheet results had failed.

Without it there was no way of knowing the outcome of the voting in each constituency and on the regional list.

Candidates and party activists watched big screens in eager anticipation of seeing the first results, but they remained blank.

News of the computer failure was broken to Mr Aitchison by DRS officials at about 1.30am after he asked for a progress report.

"It soon became clear that time was getting on and we were approaching 2am it wasn't getting fixed and people were becoming anxious and getting angry.

"I told DRS, 'You need to tell me whether you can fix this in a reasonable time, or I will have to consider calling the count off'. It was like trying to run a major operation not quite blind, but without proper management control."

Mr Aitchison was able to announce the results for Edinburgh Central and Edinburgh Pentlands at about 6am, but ordered the counts for the other four city seats stop to resume at midday.

A DRS spokeswoman described the fault in Edinburgh as a "temporary interruption". It is understood that data from all the papers that could be scanned was successfully collected, but the problems arose in processing it.

"There was a known issue at a small number of count sites with the consolidation of data for some individual constituencies," the DRS spokeswoman said.

"We can confirm that all data is secure but consolidating it has taken longer than anticipated and it is required to resolve this issue to allow the returning officer to make the declarations.

"Counting and adjudicating is happening as normal at all constituencies and we are working at resolving this issue as matter of urgency.

"The system remains secure and robust and all the information put out has been legitimate."

Candidates and their aides attending the Edinburgh count at the Royal Highland Centre at Ingliston had become increasingly frustrated as the delays lengthened in the early hours of the morning.

Jim Sillars, former MP and husband of Independent candidate Margo MacDonald said: "If this is the doing of the electoral Commission they should all be sacked. I fought my first election as a professional agent in 1961 and I have never seen a shambles like this."

Former Scottish Tory leader David McLetchie said there had to be an investigation into what had gone wrong. He said: "I'm not a technical expert but it is clearly not a satisfactory situation. We need an investigation into why electronic counting has failed to deliver."

SNP candidate Kenny MacAskill said there was a huge sense of frustration, which was no doubt shared by staff operating the system as well as the party activists. He said: "Lessons have to be learnt. This is becoming a perennial problem at counts in Edinburgh. It is unedifying and we have got to do better."

And Liberal Democrat councillor Phil Wheeler said: "Unfortunately it's business as usual at the Edinburgh count. I have been coming to counts since 1970 and I have never known one which produced results on time. Despite the wonderful technology we didn't get them this time either."

Former council Leader Donald Anderson, Labour candidate in Edinburgh South, said: "There is no doubt that technically tonight has been a disaster. The computer system clearly has not worked and there needs to be a full inquiry into what has gone wrong."

Iain Whyte, Tory group leader on Edinburgh council, said the situation was "hugely disappointing" for candidates and their supporters and "frustrating and embarrassing" for the returning officer and his staff.

He said: "I'm not at all clear on what has gone wrong but it's clearly very serious. I think it has been a major mistake to have the parliamentary elections and the council elections on the same day when a new system for the council elections was being brought in."

Senior Lib Dem Fred Mackintosh was a member of a cross-party electoral consultative group set up after the fiasco of 1999 when the list count in Lothian had to be abandoned and thousands of votes were later found to have gone missing.

He said: "Council officers seem to have been professional and performed their task well. There doesn't seem to have been any difficulty putting the ballot papers into the scanners. The problem has been more bringing the results together in the computer."

And he questioned why there had been problems in Edinburgh when counts in other places seemed to be trouble-free.

He said: "Jack McConnell's result was declared almost instantly. Questions will have to be asked about how the count was conducted in Edinburgh."

Edinburgh West Lib Dem candidate Margaret Smith said: "This is totally appalling. It was bad enough when people didn't get their postal votes on time but to have so many spoilt ballot papers - it seems to be about 1000 per constituency across Scotland - is absolutely ludicrous."

The Electoral Commission promised "a full, independent review" of the elections in Scotland. In particular, it will be focusing on the reasons for the high number of rejected ballots, the electronic counting process and the arrangements for postal voting," said the commission.

"The commission is an independent body. It does not itself run elections, but reports on all major elections."