Report to the People
29th October 2007
Paralysed by Politicians’ Pet Projects
If
you were one of those who folded your Scottish Parliament ballot paper, or only
used one of your two Scottish Parliament votes, or marked your council ballot
paper with a cross, or stayed up until after 6 in the morning to find out who
your MSP was, you don’t need me to tell you that the systems for casting and
counting the votes in May’s elections were farcical.
The
independent inquiry into the shambles, headed by elections expert Ron Gould,
published its report last week and it doesn’t pull its punches.
The
report confirmed my feeling that we failed the people of Scotland by pursuing a
politicians’ agenda. Was it the
people who wanted a new voting system for council elections? Or council and Scottish Parliament elections on the same day?
Or a single Holyrood ballot paper? Or
electronic counting? No.
These were all the demands and obsessions of politicians.
If
we now continue to behave like cardboard cut-out politicians and hysterically
rush to blame each other, we will only confirm the public’s contempt for us.
Instead,
we should accept our responsibility and address these failings on a cross party
basis. I have therefore written to
Ron Gould, as Convener of the Local Government Committee, inviting him to give
evidence on his findings.
Our
Committee’s remit means we can only focus on the local government elections,
but I am discussing with parliamentary colleagues whether it can be expanded, so
we can examine the Scottish Parliament questions too.
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