MacAskill takes electoral Commission to task

“Now that ALBA are becoming a force to be reckoned with we will not be done down in future” - former Justice Secretary.

Kenny MacAskill MP has slated the Electoral Commission for their failure to approve the ALBA logo in time for the election ballot papers.

He said

“The Commission was set up to ensure fairness in politics not to entrench unfairness. ALBA was a very small party in early February when they submitted a logo design to the Commission. The bureaucratic delays are inexcusable with Commission systems that do not work and emails and phone calls unanswered. It wasn’t until Alex Salmond came on board this week that the Commission started to pay attention.

ALBA have been treated shabbily and now that we are becoming a force to be reckoned with we will not be done down like this in future. Unlike Labour yesterday we did not have the finance to challenge the Commission in court this time. But that will not be the case in times to come nor indeed should it be necessary.

The Commission have the most serious questions to answer and have introduced unfairness into the election. They seem hell bent on placing obstacles in ALBA’s way with every important decision run from their team in London. That team seem to have allocated the Scottish elections a very low priority.

The most serious question of all is how they were able to process and approve a change of SNP identity mark first released for public consultation on 11th March but not ALBA material submitted exactly one month earlier. The Commission officials bent over backwards to assist the big party but gave little or no help to the emerging party. This is exactly the opposite of what they are meant to be doing.”

Editors note

ALBA are standing 32 candidates across all eight regional lists in Scotland. A full list of candidates can be found here.

CANDIDATES DETAILS

South Scotland
Cynthia Guthrie
Corri Wilson
Suzanne Blackley
Laurie Flynn

Lothian
Kenny MacAskill MP
Alex Arthur
Christina Hendry
Irshad Ahmed

Glasgow
Cllr Michelle Fearns
Ailsa Gray
Cllr Shahid Farooq
Lynn McMahon

North East Scotland
Alex Salmond
Heather McLean
Cllr Brian Topping
Dot Jessiman

West Scotland
Cllr Chris McEleny
Cllr Caroline McAllister
Cllr Ellen McMaster
Delia Henry

Central Scotland
Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh
Cllr Lynne Anderson
Dr Jim Walker
Margaret Lynch

Mid Scotland and Fife
Eva Comrie
Neale Hanvey MP
Jim Eadie
Stephanie Reilly

Highlands and Islands
Kirk Torrance
Craig Berry
Josh Robertson
Judith Reid

ALBA - TOP TEN FOR DIVERSITY

18 women
7 serving councillors
6 current or former parliamentarians
3 BAME candidates
3 candidates with disabilities
2 serving MPs
2 economists
1 Gaelic speaker
1 former champion boxer
1 Former First Minister

KEY STATS

WOMEN 18 = 56%
MEN 14 = 44%