Elections not playthings, voters must come first
October 13th, 2008

The 2007 elections and the debacle surrounding the rejected ballots and malfunctioning counting machines seem a long time ago now.

But that fiasco tainted the democratic process and more importantly, undermined the confidence of the voters.

Since then, the parliament has been working hard to fix the problems that blighted the elections to ensure there is never a repeat.

In my capacity as convener of the Local Government Committee, I was tasked with leading an inquiry into the problem and I was pleased to take part in a Parliament debate on the issue last week.

As a result, a number of changes will be enacted, including holding the council election on different days from the parliament ones and simplifying the ballot papers that confused so many voters last time round.

It is a positive step by the parliament and will hopefully ensure there is no repeat of last year’s debacle.

But while investigating the issue of elections, my key finding was this – that voters themselves should be at the heart of our electoral system.

In 2007, we got it wrong because the complex ballots and the time-saving counting methods were there to make things easier for us involved in the political process, not necessarily for the voters.

We must remember that elections are not the plaything of politicians.

Ron Gould, an internationally expert on elections who provided evidence to my committee, said that voters were treated as an afterthought.

Hopefully the measures taken mean we will not make that same mistake again.

After all, what is the point of an electoral system if not to help as many voters as possible to exercise their democratic right?

Everything else is secondary.