Worldwide interest as polls open

By Stuart Nicolson and Dave Romans
BBC Scotland news website

The eyes of the world have been on Scotland as voters went to the polls for the Holyrood and council elections.

The Scottish vote has made headlines across the world

Journalists from more than 30 countries have arrived to report on the vote, which has attracted "unprecedented" international attention.

Many of the world's major newspapers and television channels have carried in-depth coverage of the issues facing Scottish voters during the four-week election campaign.

A team of international observers has also travelled to monitor the new electronic counting systems, which is being used for the first time in a Scottish election.

Publications including the Chicago Tribune, France's Le Monde, Germany's Die Welt and the New Zealand Herald have already extensively featured the election, with much of their focus being placed on the constitutional debate.

The British Council, which aims to build stronger relationships between the UK and other countries, has been host to many of the foreign journalists.

It is a very interesting time to be here in Scotland given the implications of who could control the national agenda Seth McLaughlin Washington Times

The journalists, from countries including Afghanistan, Sudan, Malawi, the Palestinian Territories and Saudi Arabia, spent three days shadowing parliamentary candidates from all the major parties.

Later on Thursday they attended constituency counts.

Among them was Washington Times political reporter Seth McLaughlin, who said the Scottish campaign was very different from elections he had covered at home.

Mr McLaughlin, who had shadowed Labour's Pauline McNeill in Glasgow, said he had been struck by how Scottish candidates were willing to talk to voters on their doorsteps, something few American politicians would be willing to do late on in the campaign.

Electoral process

He added: "It is a very interesting time to be here in Scotland given the implications of who could control the national agenda as it moves forward."

Nepalese freelance journalist Sudarshan Shrestha, who was shadowing SNP candidate Alex Neil, said his country could learn lessons from how the Scottish poll was conducted.

He said: "In Nepal we are talking about holding elections or a referendum in a matter of months when there are no laws in place to guide the electoral process.

"Here in Scotland, public information about the election started a year and a half ago."

Here in Scotland, public information about the election started a year and a half ago Sudarshan Shrestha Nepalese freelance journalist

Andy O'Neill, head of the Electoral Commission in Scotland, said his office had been inundated with requests for information and interviews from foreign journalists.

Mr O'Neill added: "The level of interest from abroad has been unprecedented in my experience.

"There has been considerable interest from Poland, for example, partly because of the number of Poles who now live in Scotland and who are eligible to vote here.

"We have also had requests from the likes of Rai television in Italy, and TV stations in the Spanish region of Catalonia, where there are obvious parallels with the constitutional debate."

Mr O'Neill is hosting delegations of electoral experts from countries including Canada and Spain, which have similar devolved parliaments to Scotland.

He said the new electronic counting technology, coupled with the Holyrood and local elections being held on the same day under different voting systems, had caused considerable interest among the election administration community.

Observers from the Open Rights Group are also due to monitor the elections to examine the possible impact of electronic counting on voter privacy and electoral fraud.