SCOTS are being asked to vote in three separate elections next year under three different voting systems. The elections for the Scottish Parliament, to be conducted under the additional member system, are to be held on the same day as the council elections, where the traditional first-past- the-post system will apply. A month later elections for the European Parliament will be conducted under a system of straight proportional representation with Scotland being treated as a single eight-member constituency. It will occasion no surprise if there is some confusion among the electorate being asked to adjust themselves to two new systems of voting while remembering what to do under the old one. The difficulties will be greatest in the simultaneous elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish local authorities, not least because the additional member system requires each elector to be

given two ballot papers.

The former Liberal leader Lord Steel, who is to be an additional member candidate for the Scottish Parliament, has sought to simplify the situation facing the electorate by asking for the council elections to be postponed for one year. This would mean extending councils' remits from three to four years, a dangerous democratic principle, especially when it is an afterthought. In Scotland local authority representation is not automatically renewed on an annual basis when a third of the council submits itself for re-election, as happens throughout much of England. Lord Steel's proposal is well-meaning and is clearly based on discussions he has held with those responsible for the elections, but it could set a dangerous precedent if acted upon. Moreover, new life for dead wood is not an alluring proposition in a Scotland which has not been well-served by some of its existing councillors.

In practice, Scotland is unlikely to suffer from two elections on one day. The counts may be agonisingly slow, but that is a problem we can live with. The poll for the Scottish Parliament may well boost the turnout in the local elections. The local elections in England this year were marred by a historically low turnout. Millions felt they voted for a change of Government last year and they had no need to do more. The novelty of elections for a Scottish Parliament may help to compensate for such a syndrome. Voters are more sophisticated nowadays than politicians often give them credit for. The nationwide tactical voting evident in last year's General Election was a telling demonstration of this. The coincidence of the elections for the Scottish Parliament and the local councils is not ideal, but there is little evidence to suggest that there would be any real benefit from departing from the

existing arrangements. The European elections may be the ones to suffer from more voting opportunities than most people want.