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Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

I fear that I might disappoint the hon. Gentleman again. Clearly, some of the scenes on election night did not do our reputation any good, but it is worth putting them in context. The Electoral Commission report states that there was a problem with queues in 27 polling stations out of 40,000 that were used for the May elections, and that about 1,200 people were affected out of the 29.6 million people who voted. I do not wish to underplay the position for those people, but it is worth putting the problems in perspective. The report also states:"““The main factors which contributed to the problems were evidence of poor planning assumptions in some areas””," meaning that some areas used assumptions for the general election based on the turnout for local elections.