3 Experience of the Scottish elections
9. On 3 May 2007, elections to the Scottish Parliament
and Scottish local government took place. For the first time,
a combined ballot paper was used for the election of both list
and constituency Members of the Scottish Parliament. The local
government elections employed a Single Transferable Vote (STV)
system. Electronic counting was used extensively to produce the
results.
10. As the election results were announced, it became
clear that there was a very high rate of spoilt ballots. The complexity
of the system and the decision to combine ballot papers were called
into question and the Electoral Commission decided to commission
an independent review of the elections to determine what went
wrong. This was headed by Ron Gould CM, a Canadian elections expert.
Mr Gould published his report in October, finding that "the
voter was treated as an afterthought" in planning the elections
and that key decisions had been taken at the last minute.[9]
11. In November, we took evidence from the Electoral
Commission and from the Scotland Office in the light of the independent
review.[10] We will hear
from Ron Gould, author of the review, and his colleague Michael
Boda in the new year. The Government is currently consulting on
the proposals for reform made by the independent review team,
and we hope that our evidence will be regarded as an important
contribution to this consultation. We were deeply concerned by
the events of 3 May. Neither partisan political interest nor bureaucratic
delay can be allowed to undermine the UK's long democratic tradition.
9 Ron Gould CM,
Independent review of the Scottish Parliamentary and local government
elections 3 May 2007, The Electoral Commission, October 2007. Back
10
Oral evidence taken before the Scottish Affairs Committee on 13
November 2007, HC 78-i. Back
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