Gould Report

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at 4:10 pm on 10 January 2008.

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Photo of Kenneth Gibson Kenneth Gibson Scottish National Party 4:10, 10 January 2008

I absolutely agree. That would get rid of people who are not serious and allow other parties to come forward.

Charter 88 and Unlock Democracy produced a report for the Local Government and Communities Committee that all members will have received. It shows that 26 per cent of the volunteers Charter 88 recruited to monitor the election did not understand how STV works. It is clear that there is much more work to be done.

Some political parties fielded more than one candidate in an area. It goes against the grain of STV when multi-member wards are divided. For example, in my wife's ward, where there are three Labour Party members and one SNP member, the Labour members divided the ward into three sections. That should not happen. Although parties can deal with matters as they wish, surely the voters should have the opportunity to go to whoever they want to. If such a strategy is going to be used in an election, voters should be told in advance that the ward will be divided up, so that they are not deceived.

We have heard about the "Alex Salmond for First Minister" issue. It is another way in which voters are not being given all the information that they should be give prior to an election. We have to widen the issue out beyond the aspects of the Gould report that previous speakers have focused on; we must consider the entire issue in the round.