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The Herald
February 7,
2003
Summary:
In Scotland, both
the Scottish National Party and the Labor Party
have prepared bills for using choice voting (STV) in Scottish local elections.
However, the Conservative bill was ready for vote in February,
but the Labor bill will not be ready until after the elections
in May. Although the Liberal Democrats are core supporters of
choice voting, they decided to wait for the Labor bill, and thus voted
against the National bill, drawing heavy criticism from the National
party.
Marwick on attack after PR bill defeated
By Frances Horsburgh
February 7, 2003 The Scottish Liberal Democrats held firm
yesterday and refused to vote for an SNP bill to bring in
proportional representation for local government elections, despite
it being one of their flagship policies. They were branded as
"hypocrites" by Tricia Marwick, who had promoted the legislation but
the LibDems hit back, claiming it was simply designed to drive a
wedge between them and their Labour coalition partners. The
member's bill was killed off at stage one, by a vote of 65 to 54
with 2 abstentions. Iain Smith, for the LibDems, made it clear they
were pinning their faith on Labour delivering a PR system during the
next session of parliament. Earlier this week, a Local Government
Bill was published by the executive, containing provisions for PR to
be brought in by 2007. Ms Marwick, however, claimed the Liberals
had been "conned" by their coalition partners. She told MSPs: "If
they do not vote for this bill, then they are simply stupid, they
are unprincipled and hypocrites." |
