Mr Gould was concerned about the reaction to his report

Ron Gould said he was dismayed by the reaction to his report and the row over who was mainly to blame.

The Canadian elections expert told MSPs so many people were involved that none bore "ultimate responsibility".

The results process on election night in May had been besieged by delays and problems which saw some 140,000 ballot papers rejected.

Mr Gould's report caused controversy when his criticism of the elections seemed to suggest that Labour ministers put partisan political interests first and voters second.

'Starting point'

He later issued a letter of clarification stating that "all political parties were concerned with the potential political advantage" - a move described as "bizarre" by Scotland's deputy first minister Nicola Sturgeon.

Giving evidence to Holyrood's local government committee by video link from Ottawa, Canada, Mr Gould explained: "I was somewhat disturbed by the fact that, in my view, some of the media and some of the debate was looking back and trying to assess blame for who was responsible for what, rather than taking the problems as the starting point for a resolution that would avoid those in the future."

He added: "In reality, it's impossible to assess blame because there were so many people responsible for so many things that none of them had ultimate responsibility.

"So the buck stopped nowhere."