Kinnock's £33,000 job with computer firm in poll fiasco

The former Labour leader faced embarrassment after the £8.9million system supplied by DRS Data Services was blamed for critical delays and errors in the ballot for the Holyrood parliament.

The Electoral Commission has launched a full-scale inquiry into the reasons why 100,000 ballot papers were recorded as 'spoiled' and seven counts had to be suspended.

DRS, where Lord Kinnock is a non-executive director, has already admitted its system struggled in the later stages of vote counting.

The Labour peer and former European Commissioner was hired by the Milton Keynes-based company in 2005. A year later, DRS won the lucrative contract with the then Labour-run Scottish Executive to provide electronic counting machines for both Scottish parliament and local elections.

There were claims that the presence of a senior parliamentarian gave the company a crucial edge over rivals pitching for the contract.

Angus MacNeil, MP for the Scottish Nationalists, who narrowly beat Labour into second place last week, promised his party would hold a second separate inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the award of the contract.

He said: "This system was meant to speed up counting but it did nothing of the sort. Once we form a government, voters can be assured there will be the fullest possible investigation."

Problems with the DRS voting machines were compounded by the confusing nature of the new proportional representation voting systems. On ballot papers for the Scottish parliament, many voters failed to realise that they should vote twice - marking an "X' first for a local candidate and then for the regional top-up list.

Adding to the complexity, a different voting system had been adopted for Scottish local councils, where voters were required to number candidates in order of preference.

DRS, which last year had sales of £16million, has also been involved in elections for the Mayor of London and the European Parliament, which were hit by delays.

Lord Kinnock stepped down from his EU job in 2004 but his wife Glenys remains a member of the Brussels Parliament.

On Friday, shares in DRS tumbled in the wake of the chaos, falling around 12 per cent to 30p.

A spokesman for DRS Data Services said: "There was a blockage at the end of the counting process that stopped the consolidation of the data.

"The issue was not widespread and was resolved quickly. We will be holding our own inquires into what happened. We appreciate a review needs to be done of the system."