YOU would think he had seen enough elections to last a lifetime.
In his role as Edinburgh's returning officer, Tom Aitchison has had to contend with missing ballot papers, demands for his resignation, and the fiasco of last year's Scottish Parliament count.
But instead of handing over the poisoned chalice, the
city council chief executive is instead set to be put in charge of overseeing elections for the whole of Scotland.
The move follows a report published by the Electoral Commission today, recommending a shake-up of the way elections are run after last year's controversy when postal votes were sent out late and thousands of ballot papers were rejected.
The report proposes the creation of an Electoral Management Board, made up of Scotland's 32 returning officers and 15 electoral registration officers.
The convener would have "power of direction" to ensure consistency across the country on such issues as when postal votes are sent out and adjudication of doubtful ballot papers.
Under the commission's plans, the new arrangements would apply to Holyrood, Westminster, European and local elections.
Sources said Mr Aitchison – who has already been appointed regional returning officer for the whole of Scotland for next year's European Parliament elections – was also the most likely candidate to become the initial convener of an Electoral Management Board.
Mr Aitchison faced calls for his resignation in 1999 after he presided over chaos at the first Scottish Parliament election count in Edinburgh, when the counting of list votes had to be abandoned and thousands of ballot papers were later found to have gone missing.
But he said lessons had been learned and he had overseen another nine or ten elections since then.
Inconsistent decisions by individual returning officers in different parts of Scotland was one of the issues highlighted by elections guru Ron Gould in his report on the fiasco surrounding last year's Scottish Parliament and council elections.
He recommended a full-time chief returning officer for the whole country.
The Electoral Commission said it did not believe there was a compelling case for taking responsibility for elections away from local authorities and handing it to a new Scotland-wide body.
However, it said it had briefed Mr Gould on its proposals and he saw the idea of a powerful convener as "a chief returning officer by a different name". Although the post would not be full-time, it would be a permanent role and there would be a full-time secretariat.
Andy O'Neill, head of the Electoral Commission in Scotland, said: "The convener would provide leadership and would be the recognisable face of Scottish elections. That's something Gould was very keen on.
"The convener would have statutory power of direction so he could require his fellow returning officers to do something in a particular way."
As an independent official, he would be answerable to the courts rather than to ministers.
The full article contains 486 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
