Regulations for the local authority elections in Scotland in May were finally laid in the Scottish Parliament today (Wednesday). The May elections will be conducted under the new STV system with constituents ranking candidates in order of preference. Labour intended to have the ballot paper laid out in party blocks, which they believed would encourage Labour voters to put their top preference all to Labour and less likely to look to other parties for their second or third preferences.
However, after a concerted battle by all the other opposition parties Labour has had to back down. The new regulations now state that the ballot paper will be listed purely in alphabetical order of the candidates names.
This is a victory for common sense and makes the local authority elections even more interesting. There is no doubt, especially in this climate with Labour doing so badly that Labour voters will now be more inclined to perhaps use their 2nd or 3rd preference for another candidate or party. Already there are a lot of very unhappy Labour coouncillors who know they are on a shoogly peg. That peg got a lot more shoogly today.
