ALMOST 300 voters have complained to the Electoral Commission over a “front for fascists” party which may have cost the Scottish Greens two regional list seats.
The Electoral Commission was asked by The National how many people had complained about Independent Green Voice having a similar name and logo to the Greens.
The party, whose candidates include an alleged Holocaust denier and two former BNP activists, have been registered with the Commission since 2003 – but only changed their logo from a forearm with a thumbs up to a leaf with the words “Independent Green Voice” written underneath on March 23, 2021. The party’s description, which had many different iterations logged with the commission in 2003, also changed their tag line to “Independent Green Voice – Organic, Local, Democratic”.
Former UKIP member Alistair McConnachie, who founded pro-Union group A Force For Good, was investigated by Nigel Farage’s former party in 2001 after making comments about the Holocaust. He stood as the candidate for the Glasgow region for Independent Green Voice. There are now concerns that this may have led to voter confusion and cost the pro-independence party regional seats in Glasgow and South Scotland, and stopped to the pro-independence total of MSPs being 74 instead of 72.
And now, it has been revealed that 283 people have so far complained to the Electoral Commission. The details of the complaints were not disclosed, and the Commission would not confirm if an investigation was going to be launched. Police Scotland said that they had not received any complaints and therefore would not be investigating.
READ MORE: Greens say confusion over 'fascist front' may have cost them seats
A spokeswoman for the Electoral Commission said: “The Electoral Commission has received 283 enquiries from members of the public about this issue. We are responding to them to set out the rules around the registration of party identifiers which we are required to work within.”
According to the commission, on polling day if an individual makes a mistake on their ballot paper inside a polling station they can request a new ballot paper – but once it has been placed in the ballot box it cannot be replaced.
In Glasgow, where Independent Green Voice were not on the ballot paper in 2016, they gained 2210 votes (0.7% vote share). The Scottish Greens were only 1000 votes away from taking a second regional seat that eventually went to the Tories. Independent Green Voice also may have had an impact in South Scotland. There they won 1690 (0.46% vote share) votes that also may have been a result of voter confusion. The Greens only needed 100 votes to take the final regional seat. The party was not on the peach ballot in 2016 for South Scotland.
READ MORE: Did Unionist tactical voting ads stop SNP from winning key target seats?
It is understood that the Scottish Greens are currently “exploring options” on how to proceed.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Greens said: “Independent Green Voice, now a front for fascists, was allowed to use a logo with ‘green’ in big letters and the other words in small print on the ballot paper. This attracted enough votes to potentially prevent two additional Scottish Green MSPs to be elected, one in Glasgow and one in the South of Scotland. There are serious questions about how the Electoral Commission allowed such blatant electoral deceit.”
Independent Green Voice have been contacted for comment.
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