Now the polling stations are closed and the counting should begin in the 2007 Scottish Parliament Elections. I toyed with doing an election night results site but the usual sources of official data haven’t been there this time around so it will be a retrospective analysis instead. Point is it looks like one of the genuinely closest elections in Scotland for over half a century and for the first time in ages there’s a chance that the Labour Party will not be have the largest share of seats in Scotland’s elected govenment. Latest estimates I saw were that the SNP were about 5 points ahead which would give them the lead – but only by a tiny number of seats.
Much to add to the confusion is that this time there were *two* votes taken today Scottish Parliament and Scottish Councils (Local Authorities). Even more so is that there were *three* completely different voting systems being used on the same day. First past the post for parliament constituency seats, Additional Member System for the regional list MSPs and STV for the council vote. I have a great deal of difficulty believing that this is in the best interests of the electorate. Standing in line at the polling station we were fortunate that the two polling station staff took the time to explain the differences to every single person individually so maybe that’s partly to explain why for the first time I can remember I had to queue before getting my ballot papers. A pensioner in front of me looked appreciative at the explanation but still frowned in puzzlement. It’s not good if people are only finding out at the last minute the time of voting. This election has had by far the greatest media attention I can remember in the last couple of decades. For at least a month before polling day there were items every day in radio/TV, opinion polls closely scrutinised by the press, the unfamiliar territory of Labour fighting from behind has added a frisson of excitement. I’m the kind of wierdo that finds election nights exciting anyway but the results this time will be especially intriguing.
Anecdotally one pensioner relative voted for the same party on all three ballots constituency, regional list and council…by adding a single cross…however the council election was uhnder the Single Transferable Vote system where you’re supposed to add numbers next to the candidates names in order of preference 1,2,3 etc. – so will her council vote be a spoilt vote? A steady stream of older folk turning out to vote – is that good news for Labour (old-timers less likely to jump ship to new parties)
Another informal canvassing of younger folk of around 4 twenty-somethings their main votes seemed to be scattered among Labour,LibDems and the Green party…bad news for SNP both now and longer term if the youth aren’t warming to their platform.
Disappointments -
- considering how much electronic communications have advanced in recent years I’m pretty startled that they’re not being used more effectively by officialdom, the parties and media have made a much better job of this. I asked the Electoral Commission if they had an official list of candidates – they said sorry no but pointed me to the BBC website! I *really* don’t want the UK to go down the American route of media companies being the only easily accessible information service. What I was really keen to see was who my candidates were in my council election – I couldn’t find this before I went to vote so seeing the ballot paper was the first time I knew who I might be voting for. Yes there were ‘election communications’ but it was mostly the larger parties that took advantage of that leaving the smaller parties/independents less well documented.
- Local authority websites. I give them alot of kudos for mostly having election pages with council/other info reasonably well signposted on their sites (there are a few exceptions) but what I find difficult is the inconsistency with which details are reported between authorities. Some plain HTML others PDF, some list full details of candidates others just a name and party. Surely there should a common set of fields of data,formats that are mandatorily released?
- Talking of STV. Shockaroony. Scottish Television having had great and more light-hearted coverage in the run up to the election aren’t going to be providing any actual results service on the night other than in news bulletins leaving the field clear for BBC Scotland to be the sole analysis and results service as the results come in. Again this doesn’t seem healthy. Not that I have anything against the BBC it’s just again the principle of only having one source of information/presentation, there are subtle biases in each, a plurality helps balance these out.
