Stung by ballot-rigging claim, SNP denies selection process is tainted

THE SNP last night denied claims that its selection process for Holyrood candidates had been tainted, amid allegations that there was an attempt to rig the West of Scotland ballot.

With the Nationalists already trailing Labour in the polls for next year's crucial Scottish Parliament elections on the back of a disastrous Westminster campaign, party chiefs admitted that they had been forced to take action over the selection process.

Concerns appear to have been raised after a late flurry of new members, mostly with Asian names, was reported in the west of Scotland region. Many of the new members had previously been identified as Conservative voters and their membership fees of 12 each were paid for by just a handful of individuals.

After the alarm was raised by the East Dunbartonshire Council SNP group, the party's executive intervened to prevent anyone from voting in selection battles who had not been a member before 6 June this year.

With many SNP MSPs nervous about keeping their seats, there is a fierce contest to get high up on the party list for regional vote.

In the West of Scotland there are four SNP list MSPs — Stewart Maxwell, Stuart McMillan, Gil Paterson and Bill Wilson — hoping to make a return, while Cunninghame North MSP Kenny Gibson is in danger of losing his seat and is looking at getting high up on the list.

Another potential SNP candidate looking for a place on the list is also believed to be Osama Saeed, a controversial figure who was chief executive of the Scottish Islamic Foundation and is a close associate of First Minister Alex Salmond.

But yesterday Labour claimed that the SNP leadership's intervention on alleged vote-rigging was not enough, and that the party should launch an internal investigation to find out who was responsible.

Labour insisted the SNP needed to find which candidate was behind the attempt to rig the list vote and exclude them from standing for the party.

Labour Strathkelvin and Bearsden MSP David Whitton said: "The SNP need to get their house in order and ensure that they find which candidate was behind this attempt to rig the vote and then stop them from standing for parliament.

"This type of behaviour is deeply undemocratic and needs to be weeded out.

"If the SNP do not take action then the whole process is tainted and voters will be asked to potentially support a candidate that had tried to rig a ballot."

However, in a statement last night the SNP claimed that the incident showed its selection process was robust, rejecting suggestions that the process had been tainted.An SNP spokesman said: "This demonstrates that the SNP's procedures are totally robust — our priority is electing all our candidates over the summer and getting out there to win next year's election for Scotland."

The west of Scotland region is not the only area of fierce competition for the SNP, with at least two high-profile ministers and former leadership candidates — education secretary Mike Russell and housing minister Alex Neil — rumoured to be nervous about their place on the lists in their regions in the south of Scotland and central Scotland.