Holyrood count could be delayed as priotity given to AV poll

It has emerged that the Scottish Parliament elections next May are to take a back-seat to the UK referendum on the alternative vote. The news comes to light after guidance from The Electoral Commission was sent to Scotland's 32 Local Authorities giving them details on the poll planned for next May.

In the notes from a meeting of the Elections & Registration Working Group on the 17th August, it clearly states that the Alternative Vote Referendum "will be the senior poll" in a section of notes designated to address the combination of the Scottish Parliament Elections and the Welsh Assembly Elections with the referendum.

Commenting, Glasgow SNP MSP Bob Doris said: "This could mean that Scotland will have to wait until after all counting is finished for the AV Referendum before we can even start counting the election that really matters in Scotland.

"It was bad enough last time having to wait until Friday evening before finding out who had won but if we have to have the counting of a whole other election beforehand, who knows how long we'll have to wait.

"This is not acceptable and can't be allowed to happen - the Tories and Lib Dems must think again, listen to commonsense and agree to have the referendum on a different day from the Holyrood elections."

The notes of the meeting also say that the 'Counting Officers' will oversee the counting of ballots and will need to "reach an agreement" with Returning Officers, meaning that two separate people will be in charge of counting on election night which could create significant problems with regards to staffing.

Mr Doris continued: "This is a complete insult to the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland - and completely demolishes the UK Government's claims of a 'respect agenda' when it comes to Scotland.

"It's bad enough that the Con/Dem Coalition plan to hold their referendum on the same day as the elections for the Scottish Parliament, but for Cameron and Clegg's plebiscite to be given precedent over the Scottish General Election is nothing short of outrageous.

"Everyone in Scotland recognises that the majority of decisions that affect them on a day to day basis take place at Holyrood and not in Westminster. Justice, Health, Education are all devolved to Scotland and are what the Scottish electorate care most about.

"The date for Scottish election has been in place since 1998 and we all witnessed the complete shambles that occurred in 2007. After the Gould report I thought we had seen the last combined elections in Scotland but unfortunately the Tories and Lib Dems didn't want it that way - it just highlights how little they know or care about Scotland."

Note:

The section of the document regarding the combination of elections is below, if you would like the whole document, please reply to this email.

Combination of Polls The CO is aiming to have the Schedule containing the Combination rules ready in September/October. The Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland Offices are undertaking some technical amendments to their legislation that will need to be taken into account. The question as to whether Parish elections will take place on the same day as the referendum or will be postponed is currently with Ministers and will impact on the combination rules. On the question of which statutory officers discharge specific functions, it was confirmed that the referendum would be the senior poll and the Counting Officer would be responsible for areas such as appointing staff, polling stations, equipment at polling stations, and ballot boxes. The Counting Officer and the Returning Officer would need to reach agreement on whether postal vote issue to be combined or not. The EC are keen to promote consistency of approach and an area they are keen to develop is the issue of whether each polling station should have a separate ballot box for each poll or if all the ballot papers issued at a station, for all polls, should be combined in one (or more if required) ballot box. Members were asked their experience/views on the matter and the EC indicted they intend to publish an issues paper on the subject. The group then undertook a practical exercise to compare the speed of verification using the two options. The findings indicated little difference in the time taken.