Scottish Parliament and local council elections should be held on different dates, MSPs agreed last night.

The parliament also backed calls for Holyrood to be given greater responsibility for how Scottish elections are run.

It followed a Holyrood debate into last year's election, in which more than 146,000 ballot papers were rejected.

The way the election was conducted was criticised by Ron Gould, the Canadian elections expert, whose report into the fiasco found voters were treated as an "afterthought" by those in charge.

Among the areas criticised was the decision to hold the Holyrood election and the local council poll on the same day.

Last night, MSPs voted by 109-16 in favour of a Tory amendment calling for the elections to be "decoupled", which would see them held on different days.

Annabel Goldie, the Scottish Conservative leader, said the decision was "a victory for common sense" and would improve local democracy.

She said: "Holding the elections on the same day with three different voting systems and redesigned ballot papers was a recipe for disaster."

During yesterday's debate, Parliament Minister Bruce Crawford said last May's fiasco "must never happen again".

Responsibility for May's elections was split between the Scottish Parliament and the Westminster-based Scotland Office but Mr Gould said that meant it could not be guaranteed that they would be "conducted effectively". His solution was for responsibility to be transferred to one body, ideally Holyrood.

A Scottish Government motion had called for Holyrood to be given responsibility for the "conduct" of all elections north of the border, suggesting it take full charge of the electoral process but, as a compromise, the SNP voted in favour of an amendment which said the Scottish Parliament should be in charge of only the "administration" of the elections.