Wednesday 31 October 2012

£350,000 worth of ballots papers shredded



Nearly eight Weeks ago John Dixon at Borthlas s brought out attention to the possibility that the ballot papers the police commissioner elections may not be bilingual in Wales

Ministers said it was not unprecedented for similar legislative orders to be approved shortly before elections and the same had happened in the run-up to the 2010 general election.

True but it should have been corrected immediately. How much parliamentary time does it take to correct an obvious error.

And Why did it occur shouldn't there be a stipulation that Elections in Wales should automatically be conducted  bilingually

You would be forgiven that this was an oversight that would be corrected quickly and efficiently.

Nominations closed on October 16 so Ballot Papers  must have been printed after then

The Electoral Commission has already presumed the papers would be Bilingual, because they showed the example in the booklet I received  weeks ago and were not afraid to give us an example of what the Ballot paper would look like


Although Peers  approved plans to print bilingual ballots in both Welsh and English on Monday only  48 hours before a deadline for sending out postal ballots in Wales. Yhe Electoral Commission behaved sensibly.

 Unlike those who printed English only ballot paper
s
Ballots written only in English will now have to be thrown away.

 It has emerged an estimated £350,000 worth of ballots papers are likely to be shredded.

Ministers said they were committed to ensuring "full parity" between English and Welsh languages on ballot papers in Wales.

But Labour and Plaid Cymru said it was ridiculous that the matter had come to Parliament for approval so late in the day and that ministers had initially intended to seek their approval in May.

So.

  • Why did such a cock up occur?
  • Why did it take so long to fix once it was discovered?
  •  Why were English only allot papers printed even though it was obvious the Legislation would be passed (I suppose the bureaucrats will claim an legal requirement) Even though the Electoral Commission realised this ?
  • What is Welsh Secretary David Jones going to do to ensure that the necessary Legislation is passed is to ensure that this doesn't happen again and Bilingual ballot papers are automatic in any Election or referendum conducted in Wales?
  •  Should Elections in Wales come under the remit of the Welsh Assembly?

This should never have happened  and must never happen again.


1 comment:

Ruby Badcoe said...

How unfortunate, Glyn. £350,000 would have bought a lot of school books and equipment, you know. They should have had them printed them in both languages, anyway. :( Now, that the election is near, we should keep this in mind: vote wisely.