'Review Stormont Count Fiasco' Says Kinahan

A newly returned MLA has suggested a solution after a chorus of condemnation on the Assembly 'election fiasco', which at times, decended into a near chaotic process.

Danny Kinahan, a UUP South Antrim MLA (pictured) said last night: "It's only when you see an election count at close quarters that you realise just how complex an operation it can be."

Suggesting a comprehensive review of the whole count process, he said: "With an absolute need for a scrupulous result you understand the intolerable pressures on those in charge.

"We all had plenty of time on Friday and Saturday to ask difficult questions of returning officers across the province and we all became instant 'experts' - yet from election to election we barely give the matter a second thought," he said, suggesting a solution to problems in the future.

"The count 'fiasco' as it was quickly labelled simply boils down to a matter of resourcing.

"If we are going to make such a fuss when things go wrong, then the least we can do for the next time around it to resource the process properly.

"It's a bit like managing an international football team - you only get your team together for the big games. The count teams don't have the luxury of 'friendlies' nor in fact any opportunity for practice matches between elections," he continued.

"As candidates, we often speak of the 'sacred' nature of the vote and the privilege it confers on us - this equally applies to the end of the process and we need to ensure that the Electoral Commission has the necessary resources to deliver a better result," he said.

"Having said that, I can see no valid reason for failing to count or at least verify through the night and I am certainly not going to buy the 'Health and Safety' excuse.

"Many counters appeared to me to spend long periods of the count doing nothing at all constructive," he concluded, suggesting that the electoral boss and his senior management "spend more time reviewing the system and less effort defending it".

News Letter

The News Letter was forced to produce a Sunday edition for the first time since the 1990s to cover last week's Assembly elections, so long was the delay in the poll count as it couldn't make it into Saturday's paper.

Editor Darwin Templeton said: "We had planned to do the special edition, but as it turned out, because of shambolic scenes at the counts, most seats were not decided until Saturday."

"Even when we went to press, we still had only 105 of the 108 seats," he said.

His comments came just days after Sinn Fein MLA Francie Molloy made an official complaint to the Chief Electoral Office over the slowness of the count in the NI Assembly elections.

Mr Molloy described the process of counting the votes as "appalling" and said the electorate had been "treated with contempt".

"We are not complaining about the election workers and those that were exhausted, but by the whole process that we went through," he said.

The outgoing Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly, the DUP's Willie Hay, has also strongly criticised the system for counting votes in NI elections.

He said anger was building among politicians over why it was taking a lot longer here than in other parts of the UK.

"It's the system," he said. "We need a better system."

Desite all the critics, the NIO Minister of State, Hugo Swire has defended the process: "Holding three polls at the same time was an unprecedented challenge for the Electoral Office and all those involved in the administration of the process.

"I am grateful to the Chief Electoral Officer and all those who worked tirelessly in the run up to, during and after these polls for their efforts," he enthused on Tuesday, just hours after the final ballot was counted.

Commenting on concerns expressed about the time taken to count votes at the Assembly election, the Minister said: "The Chief Electoral Officer's main priority was 'getting it right' and ensuring that all Assembly members and councillors were properly returned. He has achieved this."

See: Council Election Counting Underway As SF/DUP Consider Stormont Executive Ministries

(BMcC/GK)