Election review expert named

AN international elections expert is to head the review into the chaos at this month's Scottish Parliament and council polls.

The Electoral Commission announced today that Ron Gould, one of the world's leading authorities on electoral administration, had agreed to lead the post-mortem into the fiasco which saw postal votes sent out late, counts abandoned due to of technology problems and record numbers of spoiled ballot papers.

From 1981 until 2001, Mr Gould took part in more than 100 election observation missions in over 70 countries, and advised the UN, the Commonwealth and world governments.

He said: "I hope my review will help ensure that the people of Scotland can be confident that lessons are learned."