E-count causes vote result delay

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Electronic counting should not be used in Scottish elections until improvements to the system are made, the Electoral Commission has said.

It comes after a council by-election declaration was delayed by more than 12 hours after a technical fault.

The same counting software was used for the Cambuslang East count as that used in last May's chaotic Holyrood election.

The Electoral Commission raised serious concerns after the 2007 fiasco.

The results process was besieged by delays and saw some 140,000 ballot papers rejected.

The system counted the votes but was unable to consolidate the data constrained in the machine before printing out the result South Lanarkshire Council

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission said that local elections did not fall under the organisations remit but the Cambuslang East by-election delay did raise important issues.

He said: "Following the 2007 Scottish elections the Electoral Commission made clear our serious concerns about the future use of electronic counting.

"We set out the steps that needed to be taken, including measures to ensure transparency, security and accuracy.

"It remains our view that these are the basic conditions that must be met before e-counting is used again in Scotland," he said.

'Lock and key'

The count at Cambuslang East had been adjourned until midnight because the DRS Solutions system was unable to finalise the result.

A South Lanarkshire Council spokeswoman said: "The system counted the votes but was unable to consolidate the data constrained in the machine before printing out the result."

After a consultation with candidates and agents, council chief executive Archie Strang adjourned proceedings until noon on Friday, with the counting system data and voting papers held under lock and key.

The council said the software problem was resolved overnight.

The result was finalised early on Friday and Labour candidate Richard Tullet was declared the winner in the afternoon.