The Scottish Parliament

'The chosen location for the Scottish Parliament is wrong - it should not be in Edinburgh. It is a triumph for the Edinburgh and Scottish establishment that we will come to regret.' Ian Davidson, MP for Glasgow Pollok, Hansard, 12 th January 1998.

Candidates to appear on second poll paper

By Murray Ritchie, Scottish Political Editor in the Herald

Although a "closed" list of candidates will be in operation under the new voting system, electors will see from the ballot which candidates from which party stand to be elected if the party concern wins "top-up" seats in Holyrood. But electors will not be allowed to cast their second votes for individuals on the party lists although they will be able to vote for named Independent candidates standing against the parties.

A public education programme on the new voting system - the so-called Additional Member System, which should make the number of MSPs roughly proportional to the parties' share of the national vote - is planned for mid-February with the launch of a television campaign.

Voters in the May 6 elections will have three votes - one for a constituency MSP, just as in elections for Westminster; the second vote in the proportional "top-up" element of the poll; and the third for local councillors as usual.

Polling booths will be open from 7 am to 10 pm and the count will go on through the night until all results are known in the constituencies and in the eight regions which will provide additional members to achieve proportionality. Counting in the local council elections will be delayed for 24 hours.

There will be no national central gathering point as in the Home Rule referendum. Results will be announced in the constituencies as usual and the winning top-up MSPs will be announced at centres in the eight regions where they are standing, after the constituency results are all known. This means the final result could be delayed until late-morning on May 7 at the soonest.

In the Scottish Parliament elections the ballot paper for normal constituency voting will be light purple, and the paper for the second vote will be peach. The ballot paper for the council elections will be white. - Feb 4