The Scottish Government will continue to press Westminster to transfer powers for Scottish parliamentary elections to Holyrood, MSPs were told today.
The Scottish Government will continue to press Westminster to transfer powers for Scottish parliamentary elections to Holyrood, MSPs were told today.
Parliamentary business minister Bruce Crawford argued such a move would be in the best interests of voters north of the border.
And while he said that such a move was "perhaps unlikely" he added: "I think it would still be in the interests of every voter in Scotland if that was to happen."
The SNP Holyrood administration has already made repeated calls for full responsibility for the Scottish parliamentary elections to be transferred to ministers in Edinburgh.
But these calls have been dismissed by the Scotland Office.
Yesterday SNP MSP Bob Doris wrote to the new Secretary of State for Scotland Jim Murphy, urging him to reconsider the issue.
However a spokesman for the Scotland Office said last night that it remained their position that there was "no compelling case to change the present legislative arrangements for elections to the Scottish Parliament".
Mr Crawford insisted however that a "central recommendation" of independent expert Ron Gould's report into the 2007 election fiasco was for executive and legislative powers for Holyrood elections to be transferred.
He told MSPs that the Scottish Parliament also supported this, as did Holyrood's Local Government and Communities Committee - which also looked at last year's elections.
But he said: "So far unfortunately the UK Government have failed to see the logic."
Mr Crawford said that response from Westminster was "disappointing".
And he vowed: "We will continue to press them to change their position."
More than 180,000 ballot papers were rejected in last year's council and Holyrood elections.
And Mr Crawford said: "If we can draw a line under the events of May 2007 and learn from them then there can still be a silver lining.
"We have the opportunity to address these systemic failures and take the necessary steps to re-establish public confidence in our democratic process."
He highlighted the importance of this and said: "Our electoral system forms the very bedrock of our democracy. We should never forget that. We have to get it right."
Mr Crawford also stressed the need for politicians north of the border to tackle the electoral issues that were under their control.
"We cannot wait for Westminster," he said.
"We cannot put the work we have to do on hold. For the moment we must accept that we are where we are, and must now move forward to undertake the reforms that are deliverable within our current competence.
"We need to focus on what we can do to restore public trust and confidence in the electoral system in Scotland.
"Ron Gould said that the voters in Scotland were 'treated as an afterthought'. We must ensure that we never allow this criticism to be levelled at us again."
Mr Crawford said there was "overwhelming support" for Scottish Government proposals to 'decouple' Holyrood and local government elections, so that the two ballots would no longer be held on the same day.
Legislation to achieve this is due to be introduced in the Scottish Parliament in January.
The minister also said that that work was ongoing with the Electoral Commission in a bid to address concerns about ballot paper design.
He said: "The aim must be to develop a ballot paper which is easy to use and fair.
"An effective ballot paper that allows voters to vote the way they want and gives them the confidence that their vote will count."
Mr Crawford argued it was right to encourage the use of electronic counting - which was used for the first time in 2007 - to deal with the "complex counting procedures" required in the new method of voting for local government elections.
But he added: "Before we can commit to its widespread use in future elections we must do all we can to restore confidence and credibility in the system."
Mr Crawford also said establishing a chief returning officer for Scotland could help improve accountability and responsibility in the running of elections.
But he added: "We must also be careful not to create new posts or organisations if we cannot justify this."
And he said there maybe another way of providing the "co-ordination and coherence" required.
MSPs were debating the issue after Holyrood's Local Government and Communities Committee published its own report into the 2007 elections.
And while committee convener Duncan McNeil said they backed decoupling Holyrood and council elections, he added such a move would not guarantee there would be no repeat of the problems of the 2007 election.
Mr McNeil said: "There appears to be a general consensus across the Parliament on the proposal that future local government elections should be decoupled from the Scottish Parliament elections, so that they are not held on the same day.
"To be clear, this would not guarantee that the problems experienced in may 2007 would not be repeated."
But Mr McNeill said such a change would bring "organisational and administrative benefits" as a result of less complicated arrangements being required.
He also argued decoupling would allow the focus to be on local government issues during council elections, instead of national issues taking precedence during the election campaign.
He claimed this would give local authorities a "higher profile in the communities they serve".
But he said there were concerns that voter turnout for council elections could fall as a result of decoupling.
And he stressed: "There needs to be effective consultation, engagement with the electorate, effective research and more effective public information campaigns if the danger of low turnout is to be avoided."
Mr McNeil concluded: "The key message would be the voters themselves should be at the heart of our electoral system.
"In 2007 we got it wrong because the complex ballots and the time-saving counting methods were there to make things easier for us involved in the political process, not necessarily for the voters.
"We must remember that elections are not the plaything of politicians. Ron Gould is on record as saying voters were treated as an afterthought - let us not make that same mistake again."
Strathkelvin and Bearsden Labour MSP David Whitton said Labour backed the move to decouple council and Holyrood elections.
But Labour has "no strong views either way" on the proposed creation of a chief returning officer for Scotland.
"This is an organisational issue which is best left to the returning officers themselves," he added.
Mr Whitton said the party no longer supports the use of a single ballot paper for constituency and list members and backs a return to two separate papers for each.
"We also support plans to ensure party names are on ballot papers, guide the ordering of ballot paper and misleading party descriptions are done away with," he added.
The SNP had described itself as "Alex Salmond for First First Minister" which elevated them up the ballot paper on alphabetical order.
He also called on the Electoral Commission to carry out a programme of improved voter information and education to boost turnout.
Labour also supports a return to manual counting and Mr Whitton said, while any changes in law covering elections must come into force at least six months before the election, after claims that changes were rushed through prior to the 2007 vote.
Tory David McLetchie said the problems last May should "wipe the smirks of the faces" of those who like to comment "condescendingly" on electoral procedures elsewhere in the world.
"Scotland may not have passed the UN test," the Edinburgh Pentlands MSP said.
He said the rejection rate in the local government elections in 2007 was 1.83% compared with 0.77% in 2003 and 0.59% in 1999.
"In other words the changes to the STV system tripled the rejection rate and these figures don't tell the whole story," he said.
He described the various inquiries and consultations into the problems as a "frenzy of activity," but said not much has actually happened.
The Scottish Government is "hardly moving at brake-neck speed" in relation to local government elections, Mr McLetchie said.
But he added: "I'm sorry to say that the main drag on progress arises from the unwillingness of Her Majesty's Government (Westminster) to accept the conclusion that responsibility for electoral administration in Scotland should be transferred to a single jurisdictional entity of which Gould commented that the Scottish Parliament and government is the most appropriate."
This is "very disappointing" according to the Tory MSP.
"It precludes us from creating an office of a chief returning officer for all elections in Scotland - local, Scottish Parliament, Westminster and European Parliament - replicating the situation that already exists in Northern Ireland," he added.
But Lib Dem Alison McInnes said STV was quickly understood and appreciated by the electorate.
"STV has delivered fairer votes," she said.
"There has been a quiet revolution in our council chambers across Scotland."
She said Scotland now has councils that much "better reflect" the spread of views in their electorates and they are no longer "so dominated" by a particular party group.
"STV succeeded in broadening the range of choice to Scottish voters and opening up the electoral process to a greater range of candidates," she added.
"We also saw an increase in the number of young people on Scotland's councils.
"I hope that as the system matures all parties will take the opportunity to field as diverse a range of candidates as possible."
She also raised concerns over the "alphabetic bias" in the local results.
"Ballot paper design and candidate ordering requires much more research," she said.
"Any review should be professional, rigorous and involve assessing what voters prefer and find easiest to use.
"Alternatives should be examined and, if appropriate, rigorously tested, well before the next local government elections."
