Election fiasco 'a perfect storm'

By David Porter
Westminster correspondent, BBC Scotland

"It was a bit like the perfect storm." That was the summary by Scottish Secretary Des Browne as he briefed MPs in the Commons this week on the findings of the official report into May's Scottish elections fiasco.

Tens of thousands of ballot papers were rejected after the polls

It was the minister's analogy to try to explain the coming together of a set of circumstances that caused huge embarrassment in May and rows and reverberations this week both at Westminster and Holyrood.

The Electoral Commission asked Ron Gould, an international electoral expert, to investigate what went wrong.

This week he concluded that "almost without exception", voters were treated as an "afterthought" in the planning, organisation and implementation of the elections.

One phrase appeared particularly damning - there was "a notable level of party self interest evident in ministerial decision making" about the May elections.

The highly critical report accused ministers of overlooking the interests of the electorate when polls for the Scottish Parliament and local councils took place on the same day.

Results were delayed and more than 140,000 ballot papers were rejected.

In his Commons statement, Mr Browne promised that lessons would be learned.

Privately, the Whitehall machine feels it's been unfairly kicked in this report but the decision was taken not to get into a public slanging match with Mr Gould.

Political advantage

However, opposition MPs believe ministers should lose their jobs. In particular they've trained their fire on Douglas Alexander who was Scottish Secretary at the time.

Contained in the 120-page report were claims that ministers neglected the voters and thought instead of their own political advantage (strongly denied by ministers), when they changed the system.

It said the Scotland Office and Scottish Executive frequently focused on ''partisan, political interests ''.

As I said , council elections were also held on the same day as the Scottish Parliament and the two votes required for the Holyrood contest were squeezed onto a single ballot paper. The report said that was the biggest factor confusing the voters.

Douglas Alexander said all parties were involved in decisions

As the Scottish secretary at the time, Douglas Alexander, who is also Labour's election co-ordinator, was responsible for the Holyrood ballot. Therefore his opponents said he was to blame.

Mr Alexander apologised for any actions or omissions on his part which contributed to the problems.

However, he insisted that the decision to opt for a single ballot paper - the cause of much of the confusion - had been the result of an overwhelming consensus among Scotland's political parties.

This whole affair has been given added spice by the fact that Mr Alexander is a close friend and ally of the prime minister. By attacking him, Mr Alexander's opponents were also attacking Gordon Brown.

Really heated

If ministers hoped this row would be a ''one day wonder'' they were sadly mistaken.

The row dominated Prime Minister's Questions, where Conservative leader David Cameron said Gordon Brown should apologise too and he should strip Mr Alexander of his role as Labour's election co-ordinator.

Then things got really heated.

In reply the prime minister said Mr Cameron was misleading people about the conclusions of this report.

David Cameron went on the offensive in the Commons

That drew gasps as parliamentary rules prohibit MPs from calling one another liars.

After consulting the Clerk of the House, Speaker Michael Martin, called for temperate language, stopping short of censuring the prime minister.

Fighting to make himself heard in a noisy Commons chamber, Gordon Brown insisted the Gould report had not condemned one party more than another: Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond has called for the Scottish Parliament to be given responsibility for organising its own elections - taking the process out of the hands of ministers in London altogether.

While that would require legislation, the government in London will be keen to do whatever it takes to avoid a similar fiasco happening again.