May 5th Election Count Will be Overnight in Edinburgh

Submitted by edg on Mon, 7 Mar '11 8.35am

The Scottish Parliamentary Election count for Edinburgh's six parliamentry seats will take place overnight.

After an overnight count at the Highland Hall in Ingliston on the 5th May, fresh staff will be brought in to count from 4pm for the Referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament.

Sue Bruce, Returning Officer for Edinburgh, said on Friday:

"The decision to count overnight will ensure that the Referendum does not impact on the Scottish Parliamentary counts and declarations in any way. That is our priority as well as an accurate, transparent count in which voters have full confidence."

"The count at Ingliston will be on a scale never before experienced in Edinburgh. To achieve this, we are using the largest hall in the city and 1,200 counters overnight and 400 others the next day."

Declarations of the results for the six Edinburgh constituencies and the Lothian Region will take place in the Highland Hall.

The result for the Lothian Region is made up of nine constituencies (six from Edinburgh, 2 from West Lothian and one from Mid Lothian).

A final decision is still to be taken by the Electoral Commission on arrangements for declaring the Referendum results. As this is a UK wide event, it will be done at a UK level.