Electoral Panorama / Panorama Electoral

Countrywide and regional results of the 2007 elections in Scotland and Wales are now available in Elections to the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.

In Scotland, the SNP won a historic victory and became the largest single party by a one-seat margin over Labour, which suffered its first defeat in a Scottish parliamentary election (Westminster or Holyrood) since 1955. However, no two parties command a majority of seats in the Scottish Parliament, and right now it is far from clear what kind of government will emerge in that country.

Meanwhile, Labour remained the largest single party in the National Assembly for Wales, but with less than half the seats it will probably need a coalition partner in order to stay in power in the principality.

Voter turnout increased in both countries with respect to the 2003 elections, but in Scotland the vote count was marred by technical difficulties with electronic vote counting systems, and an unusually high number of spoiled ballots. For example, in the Lothians region - which includes the capital city of Edinburgh - the number of rejected ballots shot up from 1,926 to 15,399 for the constituency vote, and from 1,530 to 9,084 for the regional vote. As a result, the Electoral Commission has announced it will undertake a full, independent review of the elections in Scotland.

It is possible - but by no means certain at this juncture - that the drastic increase in the number of rejected ballots in Scotland was the result of voter confusion over the different electoral systems used on election day: AMS for the Scottish Parliament (under which voters cast two votes, one for a single-member constituency candidate and another for a regional party list), and STV for the local councils (which requires voters to rank candidates in order of preference). The single ballot introduced this year for the Scottish Parliament poll may have caused confusion as well: in 1999 and 2003, separate ballots were used for constituency and regional list candidates.