CANDIDATES for a “front for fascists” party have claimed that they are more ecological than the Scottish Greens but denied that global warming is real.
Alistair McConnachie, who stood in the Glasgow regional list for Independent Green Voice (IGV), and Max Dunbar, candidate in the South Scotland region, made the bizarre comments in a live stream through their pro-Union campaign group A Force For Good.
The hour-long video of the pair chatting eventually led to them bringing up the election on May 6 and they touched on claims that their party – with a similar name and logo – may have cost the Scottish Greens two regional seats.
IGV were registered with the Electoral Commission in 2003, but only changed their logo from a forearm with a thumbs up to a leaf with the phrase Independent Green Voice written underneath on March 23 this year.
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”.
READ MORE: Hundreds complain to Electoral Commission over 'Green/fascist front' confusion
In Glasgow, where IGV 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. They won 1690 votes (0.46% vote share) that also may have been a result of voter confusion. The Greens only needed 100 votes to take the final regional seat there.
McConnachie, who was investigated by Ukip for comments he made about the Holocaust, and Dunbar, a former BNP activist, both appeared in the online discussion with Union Jacks plastered over their backgrounds.
The National has contacted McConnachie on multiple occasions for his response to claims he may have cost the Greens two seats, and whether or not that was his intention. He has not responded.
At one point in the video Dunbar says that IGV are “genuinely ecologically minded” but less than 10 minutes later goes on to say that climate change has never been proven.
He said: “This other thing about the environment, global warming, carbon footprint, these are all nebulous theories and ideas that are unproven and it’s easy to spin all that stuff and it sounds good for soundbites, but for us we like to see results, for example I mentioned earlier, picking up rubbish in our local area is a concrete result.”
And, in a strange turn of events the pair seemed to be trying to suggest that it was actually the Scottish Greens who were duping voters – despite IGV not releasing any campaign material, not being easily discoverable on social media and having no manifesto.
After McConnachie tutted and shook his head at what he saw as the Scottish Greens not being ecological enough, Dunbar retorted: “To be honest the ecological issues take a subordinate place in that party, they’re really diehard Marxists.
READ MORE: Greens say confusion over 'fascist front' may have cost them seats
“If anyone who unwittingly votes for the Scottish Green Party is being misled into voting to break up the Union, they’re being misled into voting for a party that is anti-British, its overtly republican and it will use your green vote in order to promote separation and the destruction of the United Kingdom and it shouldn’t do that as an ecological party.”
It comes as almost 300 voters complained to the Electoral Commission over Independent Green Voice. 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.
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.
The Scottish Greens have been contacted for comment.
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