THERE is much anger directed at the Electoral Commission for allowing the deliberately confusing party name and logo of the repugnant right-wing Independent Green Party to appear on the list ballot paper.

This is not the first time the EC has let voters down. Douglas Alexander, a Labour MP at the time, chose the design of the ballot papers for the 2007 Holyrood and local government elections, held on the same day. Alexander was warned months before the election that the design was confusing, but they were used anyway without any intervention from the EC. The result was thousands of invalid ballot papers and electors denied their vote.

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There is a deep hatred of the SNP by all the Unionist parties, so none of the Unionists will concern themselves if voters are defrauded of their choice of independence-supporting parties.

The Electoral Commission was created in 2001 as a result of the Political Parties, Elections and Referendums Act. You may ask yourself “why”? It is an “independent” agency funded by the taxpayer to some £18.4 million per annum. I believe that it is as toothless as all the other tame “independent” agencies created by governments to mollify the public, such as Ofcom, Ofwat, Ofgem and all the other useless quangos stuffed full of government appointees with overblown salaries – paid by the taxpayers, of course.

Richard Walthew
Duns

I TOTALLY agree with Charlie Kerr’s sentiment (Letters, May 24) that if we do not change our behaviour, the environmental consequences will be dire, and I am very grateful that Sir David Attenborough has become such an outspoken and knowledgeable advocate for urgent change.

I must, however, object to labelling Sir David Attenborough an “evolutionist”. There is no such thing. This terms is used exclusively (and often derogatorily) by creationists to imply that evolutionary biology is merely an idea or some sort of secular religion that refutes the existence of God. It is not.

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Evolutionary biology is a scientific fact proven by an overwhelmingly large amount of empirical evidence from years and years of research, observation and experiments both in the field and in the lab. There is no doubt evolution is true. The evolution versus God dichotomy is, however, complete nonsense.

Firstly, evolutionary biology does not describe the beginning of life, that is abiogenesis. Furthermore, evolutionary biology and abiogenesis do not disprove in any way the existence of a higher intelligence. If God indeed exists and is eternal as claimed, why is it not possible for Him to have created nature the way it actually is, ie, by means of creating a universe that has allowed the emergence of abiogenesis and evolutionary biology and ultimately the human species?

There are many Christians who see it this way, and I am fairly confident that Sir David would not disagree with me either.

Maarten de Vries
Munlochy

IT is indeed disgraceful that the government of Belarus has taken upon itself the right to hijack a foreign aircraft in order to arrest one of its passengers. I’m sure all our thoughts are with the young activist and his girlfriend, as well as the many other individuals currently incarcerated for trying to counter this contemptible regime.

The West’s moral outrage on the matter is seriously undermined, however, by its complicity in the equally shameful abductions of foreign nationals by the USA, often from third countries, and the covert transport of these people to secret locations for interrogation and illegal detention.

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While in no way legitimising the Belarusian actions, American insistence on extensive extraterritorial jurisdiction and complete immunity from independent oversight over its many breaches of international law provides dictatorial governments such as Lukashenko’s with the opportunity to claim precedents have been set.

Indignation expressed by the US, UK and others rings hollow against the background of history. Might has been demonstrated time and again to be right, as long as it’s on “our” side.

Cameron Crawford
Rothesay

Good to see some positive action against Lukashenko and his regime (UK bans flights to Belarus and pulls airline’s licence over Ryanair ‘hijacking’, thenational.scot, May 24). He is just a arrogant non-entity that rides on the back of Putin’s tail. This is a dictator who needs to be seriously taken down off his delusional pedestal of European power. The country is a basket case.

READ MORE: UK bans flights to Belarus and pulls airline's licence over Ryanair 'hijacking'

A strong action in this instance to send out a warning to any others with these ideas – since this is accepted as an act of “state-sponsored hijacking” and air piracy, and as such in simple terms “terrorism” – would be for the EU, UK and USA to issue an international arrest warrant against him and his officials. This would allow them to suffer the same state of fear if they ever travel outside of Belarus.

Barry Cire
via thenational.scot