Supplementary evidence from the Scotland
Office
RECOUNTS AT
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT
ELECTIONS ON
3 MAY 2007
As agreed with the Committee during its evidence
session on the 13 November, I am writing to provide information
on the number of recounts that took place at the May Scottish
Parliament elections. You will understand that I am unable to
provide information on the situation with regard to local government
elections as this lies outside my responsibility. I recommend
that the Committee write to John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for
Finance and Local Government for the Scottish Executive, to obtain
recount information relating to local government elections.
First, I should make you aware that the election
rules contained in the Scottish Parliament (Elections etc) Order
2007 allow a candidate or their agent to request a recount, prior
to the announcement of the results. The Returning Officer may
refuse to conduct a recount if in their opinion the request is
unreasonable. Returning Officers are expected to give a reasonable
opportunity for this right to be exercised but no request is to
be considered after the results have been declared. The Returning
Officer has discretion to determine how a count or recount is
to be conducted. That includes the decision on whether to use
a manual or an electronic process.
I can confirm that only one full recount of
a Scottish Parliament constituency election took place. That was
for the Aberdeen Central constituency and the reason that the
Returning Officer agreed to the recount was because the provisional
result showed the total number of rejected votes was more than
twice the size of the majority.
A partial recount took place for the Cunninghame
North constituency; that is to say, a re-adjudication of ballot
papers that were not either counted or rejected by the e-counting
system automatically, but which had been physically seen and adjudicated
by the Returning Officer or one of his staff. A full recount had
been requested but was refused by the Returning Officer because
he was of the opinion, shared by many other Returning Officers,
that a rescan of all papers was inappropriate.
A request for a recount of the Eastwood constitutency
ballot papers was also made but was refused. The reason for refusing
was that no objections had been made to any adjudication decision
made by the Returning Officer and his staff.
In North Lanarkshire one of the candidates requested
to see a number of the spoilt ballot papers. This request was
received after the declaration had been made and having previously
been cleared with all candidates and agents. The request was refused.
Although not a formal request for a recount,
in West Lothian a request was made for a 10 minute recess. This
was refused because the Returning Officer confirmed his confidence
in the integrity of the system. The decision in effect dealt with
the reasons why a recount was not justified or reasonable.
The Western Isles Returning Officer took the
decision in advance that they would only allow a recount if the
margin was less than 50 votes and would only allow a re-adjudication
and not a rescan.
No other Returning Officer received a request
for a recount of the Scottish Parliament election, either constituency
or regional, that they had responsibility for.
I hope this information is useful to the Committee
in its ongoing inquiry into the May elections. Please let me know
if there is any way that I can assist further with the Committee's
work.
David Cairns MP
Minister of State, Scotland Office
27 November 2007
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