The Scots are switching to electronic counting to help cope with the complex voting system for combined Scottish Parliament and local authority elections next year.

The elections will be held using a mixture of first-past-the-post, regional proportionate top-ups and the single transferable vote (STV) and officials are warning that without electronic assistance it could take several days to reach a final conclusion.

On the same day in May next year Scottish voters will be electing both MPs to the Edinburgh parliament and thousands of local councilors.

Scottish First Minister Jack McConnell and Scottish Secretary Douglas Alexander jointly announced the go-ahead for e-counting and a simplification of the two-page ballot paper in a bid to make the process more manageable.

Finance and Public services Minister Tom McCabe said: 'The use of e-counting will provide quick, accurate and reliable results in the 2007 elections.'

He said e-counting will dramatically reduce the amount of time to complete the count in comparison to a manual count.

'Decisions on when the local government result will be declared have still to be taken. However, the e-counting system will enable the results to be delivered no later than the day after the election,' said McCabe.

'This would not be possible using traditional means of counting,' he said.

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