SCOTTISH electors going to the polls on May 6 next year will be faced with three ballot papers, the Scottish Office confirmed yesterday, writes Murray Ritchie, Scottish Political Editor.
Two of the papers will be for the Scottish Parliament elections and the third will be for the separate local council elections being held at the same time. The two parliamentary ballot papers will be different colours to avoid confusion in what will be Britain's first election conducted by the Additional Member System of voting.
Government advisers are now working on a form of wording for the second of the two Scottish Parliament ballot papers which will invite electors to cast their vote for a political party and not for an individual party candidate as in a local or General Election. They will already have been asked to vote as normal with the first of the two parliamentary ballot papers.
The second parliamentary ballot paper will also contain the name of any independent candidates standing as individuals. Depending on the number of votes cast with the second ballot paper, 56 MSPs from eight Scottish regions, based on existing Euro-constituencies, will be returned from a list, separately published, in an effort to restore imbalances caused by normal first-past-the-post voting in the 73 Scottish Parliamentary seats.
Voting in the local elections will be conducted as normal. Ministers agreed not to hold Scottish Parliament and local elections on the same day as the Euro-elections.
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