Council election bill gets green light

MSPs have backed a bill to strengthen control over council elections. However, concerns were raised about the UK government's plan to hold its referendum on the Alternative Vote (AV) system on 5 May - the date of this year's Scottish elections.

During a debate in Holyrood yesterday, enterprise minister Jim Mather said: "While it may not be the most newsworthy of legislation we've considered, the bill is making changes to give the people of Scotland a system which will ensure votes can be properly cast and accurately counted."

The Local Electoral Administration (Scotland) Bill is among a range of measures introduced following a report by Ron Gould, who investigated problems with spoilt ballots and confusion over the three voting systems used in the 2007 Scottish election. However, Labour local government spokesman Michael McMahon expressed concern about the clash between this year's Holyrood poll and the "ill-advised" referendum on the AV system.

Mr McMahon said: "So let's hope that the arrogance of our UK government does not cause us to have to address the aftermath of another electoral shambles in May."