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.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article