Inquiry launched into Scottish voting confusion

By Tim Castle

LONDON (Reuters) - An independent inquiry is to be held into the conduct of the Scottish elections after high levels of spoilt votes and delays caused by a new electronic voting system, the Electoral Commission said on Friday.

In one Glasgow constituency, more than 2,000 votes were rejected as spoilt and there were fears that as many as 100,000 votes could have been rejected across the country.

The commission said it would carry out a "full, independent review" of the Scottish elections.

"In particular, it will be focusing on the reasons for the high number of rejected ballots, the electronic counting process and the arrangements for postal voting," it said.

The Commission is an independent body set up by parliament to register political parties and monitor elections.

Scottish National Party Leader Alex Salmond said the decision to hold different types of election on the same day for the Scottish parliament and councils had been "deeply mistaken."

"As a direct result, tens of thousands of votes across Scotland have been discounted," he added. "That is totally unacceptable in a democratic society."

In some seats, candidates won by a smaller margin than the number of invalid ballots.