The Scottish Parliament should take urgent steps to make sure future council elections are held on a different day from Holyrood polls, according to a member of the commission set up to advise on the voting system.

The Scottish Parliament should take urgent steps to make sure future council elections are held on a different day from Holyrood polls, according to a member of the commission set up to advise on the voting system.

Mike Russell, also a returning SNP MSP, said it was vital both elections were "de-coupled" to avoid the confusion which marred last week's elections. In its report, the Arbuthnott Commission made clear its view that the parliamentary and council elections should not be held on the same day.

However, they were over-ruled by the ruling executive, who pressed ahead with the concurrent ballots. The Scottish Parliament has the power to move the date of the council elections and last night Mr Russell said he believed it should do so once it reconvenes. He added: "I'm convinced by the evidence I saw from the commission that de-coupling is essential and it's now more essential than ever."

Mr Russell, re-elected as a South of Scotland list MSP last week, also said another key Arbuthnott recommendation should be shelved in the light of last week's fiasco. The report said the current closed regional list system, where voters choose their preferred party without seeing the candidates on the list, should be replaced by an open one.

One of the main problems with last week's election was that thousands of voters put a cross beside more than one party on the regional list.

Mr Russell said: "We're going to have to simplify the current system, rather than make it more complicated so the aspiration for open lists is now further away than it was."