It says a lot for the SNP’s commitment to transparency that even its leading lights don’t trust its electoral processes. Ash Regan and Kate Forbes have today written to the party’s chief executive Peter Murrell asking for information about the party’s membership and the leadership ballot. Regan, in a letter which was sent with the backing of Kate Forbes’s campaign team, said that the information was ‘necessary for ensuring a fair’ contest.
Murrell is, of course, Nicola Sturgeon’s better half, with some of Forbes and Regan’s supporters fearing that the party machine has resolved to crown Humza Yousaf as her replacement. Humza Yousaf’s team has belatedly sent around an email that states: ‘Yesterday, Humza’s campaign team also asked for the figures to be published and sought assurances this would be done as soon as possible.’ A stitch-up at the top? Surely not…
The two campaigns have asked Murrell to detail the total number of paid-up members currently within the SNP, the number of digital voting papers that have been sent out to members and the number of physical postal voting papers that have been issued. It comes amid warnings from Regan’s campaign that ‘dead people may vote in SNP leadership election’.
Supporters have also called for a third party adjudicator to be brought in to oversee the contest, fearing improper influence from those linked to the current leader. Regan herself told journalists his role in the contest was a ‘clear conflict of interest’. Her campaign advisor Kirk Torrance echoed her sentiment: ‘I would like this to be a fair election. If Carrie was counting Boris’s votes, I think everybody would have questions about that.’
Not accepting the outcome of a vote? When have we heard that before…
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