Holyrood ballots to be counted by hand to avoid replay of 2007 fiasco

VOTES for next May's Scottish Parliament elections will be counted by hand after more than 140,000 ballot papers were spoiled in the 2007 Holyrood poll when electronic counting was used.

Scottish Secretary Michael Moore said the move would help next year's election run "smoothly" following the voting fiasco more than three years ago, which also resulted in the suspension of a number of counts.

The shake-up in election rules will also see a return to two separate ballot papers for the regional list and constituency contests.

At the 2007 Holyrood elections voters were handed a single ballot paper, which had list candidates on the left of the paper and constituency candidate on the right of the form.

The changes follow a critical report of the poll by Canadian elections expert Ron Gould, who led an inquiry into the issue.

Other complaints included the SNP's controversial decision to put list candidates under "Alex Salmond for First Minister".

In his report in October 2007 Mr Gould was critical of all the major parties and the UK government for the way it conducted the 2007 election and said that "Scotland's voters were treated as an afterthought".

His report has already led to changes, with ballot papers being redesigned and local and Holyrood elections being held in different years.

Now the UK government has laid down an order in the House of Commons making provision for "a return to manual counting of the ballot papers, following the use of electronic counting in 2007" in Scotland.

The Scottish Secretary, who is in charge of Holyrood elections, said the changes were needed to restore public confidence.

Mr Moore said: "Public confidence needs to be repaired after the problems that were experienced in 2007.

"This Order is now with the Electoral Commission, electoral administrators, political parties and the Scottish Government, which will allow them to begin planning the Holyrood elections in detail.

"The Scotland Office will work closely across these groups to ensure the 5 May elections run smoothly."

However, Mr Moore was criticised by Labour and SNP politicians at Holyrood over the Westminster coalition government's plans to stage a referendum on the Alternative Vote system for UK general elections on the same day as the Holyrood elections.

Labour MSP Pauline McNeill said: "Michael Moore has completely missed the point here.I have no objection to ballot papers being counted by hand, but the most important issue is the government's decision to hold their referendum on the voting system on the same day as the Scottish election.

"Mr Moore needs to remember that the role of Secretary of State for Scotland is to speak up for Scotland, not to be a mouthpiece for Mr Cameron and Mr Clegg."

SNP MSP Dr Alasdair Allan said: "Holding the AV referendum on the same day creates a real risk of the Scottish Parliamentary elections being overshadowed and the issues that really matter to the people of Scotland being eclipsed by a media focus on an electoral system that is not supported by any of the political parties.

"That was a shabby decision by Tories and Liberal Democrats which tore up the coalition government's promise to pursue a 'respect agenda' when dealing with the devolved administrations."