THE GUARDIAN: Lack of black and Asian faces in both legislatures strengthens case for positive action, campaigners believeDespite being set up to empower and involve the people of Scotland and Wales, both their devolved legislatures have been slow to include the countries' ethnic minorities. On this count at least, they have been arguably weaker than Westminster.
Despite having at least 170,000 people from an Asian, black or mixed race background among its electorate – 4% of the Scottish population – Holyrood has only ever had one non-white MSP elected, four years ago.
The Welsh assembly too, despite Cardiff's long history of black settlement and having an overall minority ethnic population of roughly 100,000 people across Wales – at least 3% of the population – first had a minority ethnic member elected in 2007.
In both legislatures there is a black democratic deficit, said Ashok Viswanathan, deputy director of the campaign organisation Operation Black Vote (OBV). » | Severin Carrell , Scotland correspondent | Monday, April 04, 2011
