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The National
6 days ago
- Politics
- The National
Scottish Greens admit 'error' in Holyrood candidate selection process
The party has faced internal pressure in recent days after it published its list of Holyrood candidates on Monday. Members raised concerns around the selection process for a number of regions, namely the North East and Glasgow lists. The National told how some members had demanded a recount took place, with one source branding the situation a "clusterfuck". READ MORE: More of the media are speaking up on Gaza. But what are they saying? While the Scottish Greens initially said that they were confident in the selection results, the party has now confirmed that an "error" had occurred in the software which was used to conduct the voting, which affected the ranking of a number of candidates. However, the party has stressed that the error did not impact on any of the lead candidates, who are most likely to be elected in Holyrood. In a statement on Wednesday evening, the party said it had sourced Mi-Voice, a third-party voting platform, to host and count the ballot papers for the Holyrood selection contest. It was first made aware of a "software error" on Tuesday morning, after previously being told by the provider that "the counting had been completed and confirmed to meet the standards requested under our internal party rules". The statement went on: "Party officials were not aware of this error at the time of previous statements, and had been reassured by the third-party provider on Monday afternoon that all counting had been completed and verified. 'Following a full revised count with oversight and verification from current party officials and those involved in previous Holyrood selections, we can confirm our full list of candidates for the Holyrood 2026 campaign. "All of the previously announced 15 lead candidates remain duly selected and will continue to lead the party's campaign to elect a record number of MSPs." It continued: 'We would like to thank the volunteers and staff who worked to identify and resolve this situation under extreme pressure and to Mi-Voice for their cooperation in resolving the error. We understand that this has been a stressful process for candidates and members, and we thank them for their vigilance, patience and trust. 'We are looking forward to working with our strong Green candidates in this election campaign, in which we'll present our positive vision of a better future where people and planet are put above corporate greed.' The National understands that the party's selection board contacted the candidates who had been affected by the error earlier on Wednesday. In a message to members which was seen by The National, the party's executive co-chairs, Carolynn Scrimgeour and Zoe Clelland, apologised "for the stress that Mi-Voice's error has placed on candidates and volunteers". They said: "In our capacity as executive co-chairs, we worked with relevant party office-bearers to ensure there was adequate oversight. "The Selection Board reconvened this morning [Wednesday] to agree actions, including verifying the accuracy of the revised results, before informing affected candidates, distributing the results to members and issuing external communications. We felt it was essential to provide information to candidates first. "All candidates have been notified of this situation, with affected candidates being called following this morning's Selection Board meeting." Votes were counted using an iterative Single Transferable Vote (STV) system and was done as a bottom-up iterative process, meaning that votes are transferred to the next candidate of choice if a voter's first candidate was eliminated in a count. Voting platform Mi-Voice said it had been contacted by the Scottish Greens just two hours after the party had published its list of candidates "seeking clarification about the production process of the results". Mi-voice director, Simon Thomson, said the firm had initially "responded to say that the process had been undertaken according to the agreed procedure". READ MORE: Two arrested as Led by Donkeys stage Gaza protest outside Labour Party HQ However, he continued: 'Later on the same afternoon, following further discussions, it came to our attention that the count sheets provided for the Holyrood selection results appeared to contain anomalies. 'Following a thorough review, the anomalies were traced to a technical fault with the vote counting software provided by a trusted third-party supplier, which was used in place of the Mi-Voice counting system due to the specific STV rules required. "The technical fault impacted the transfer of following preferences in cases where a candidate had been withdrawn from the count to create the ordered list. "Although our internal procedures for producing and verifying results were followed, this technical problem was undetected prior to the distribution of the original lists." Mi-Voice said it notified the party's office-bearers of the issue at around 10am on Tuesday. Thomson continued: 'The third-party software in question is a widely recognised and industry-standard vote counting tool. We have since reported the issue to the software vendor and have implemented a solution that enables accurate list production moving forward. "Using this revised process, we have produced updated candidate lists, which have undergone additional manual validation to ensure they represent the final and accurate outcome. These corrected lists have now been shared with the Party." Thomson went on to say that Mi-Voice acknowledged the concern the issue has raised for Green members and candidates, adding: "We understand the frustration and confusion, and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and concern it has caused." He added: 'To ensure this does not happen again, we are reviewing our internal quality control measures and introducing enhanced checks, particularly for scenarios involving candidate withdrawals to facilitate the production of ordered lists. 'We remain committed to transparency, responsiveness and continuous improvement.'
The Herald Scotland
7 days ago
- Politics
- The Herald Scotland
Greens in turmoil as senior official quits in contests row
Ms Joester said she had not authorised the comments which had insisted the results were correct and had stood down from the post. "To clarify regarding the statement to the press on members' concerns about counting irregularities, this did not come from me as Internal Elections Officer and I am no longer in that post as of this evening," she posted on the party's internal communication channel last night. Her resignation then prompted the party to release a second statement which said there had been "a misunderstanding about the sign-off" of the statement to The Herald and that the information was accurate. READ MORE: "Several people have been in touch today about the methodology which has been used for counting the votes in our candidate selection process. We're posting tonight to provide more information to members," senior officials Zoe Clelland and Carolynn Scrimgeour told members in a message posted last night on the party's internal communications platform. "The content of the statement provided to and used by the press this evening is accurate, and had been shared with the Internal Elections Officer (IEO) in advance. Whilst there was clearly a misunderstanding about the sign-off that this had received which we apologise for, we stand by the content of the original statement and are therefore confident in its accuracy." They added: "The party's Operations Manager and former Internal Elections Officer were in contact with our external voting provider throughout our selection process, including to agree how votes were to be counted. Under our Selections Procedure, our candidate lists must be counted under a Single Transferable Vote (STV) system. "Upon receiving a number of enquiries today – it has been verified that the count was conducted using the Scottish STV system, specifically the Weighted Inclusive Gregory method, and was done as a bottom-up iterative process. "This is the process that the voting provider was asked to use. As the results came in from the provider, and before they were published, they were verified by the IEO and the rest of the Selection Board. The external voting provider have explicitly confirmed this included transferring the preferences of excluded candidates at each stage. We are content, therefore, that the voting process, and the results it produced, complies with the selections procedure. "We recognise the spreadsheets provided by the supplier may not be very easy to follow, even for members with experience of STV election results. We plan to ask the supplier to provide further guidance and detail to ensure the results can be examined with maximum transparency. Please bear with us while we explore this with the external voting provider. "To be clear, the party body responsible is satisfied that this process and the methodology used is compliant with our Selections Procedure; as such, all regional lists stand as they have been published." Shockwaves were sent through the Scottish Greens when the results of the candidate selection contests were announced. The race saw MSP Maggie Chapman ousted from the top place on the party's north east list by member Guy Ingerson. With polling suggesting the Greens will get just one MSP on the north east list, it means Ms Chapman, who was party co convener from 2013 to 2019, is unlikely to be re-elected to Holyrood in May next year. Ms Chapman came second behind Mr Ingerson, who used to work in her office. There has been tension between the pair since Mr Ingerson lodged bullying complaints against her. He claimed that Ms Chapman had badmouthed him to his new employer, Friends of the Earth Scotland — insinuating he was 'untrustworthy' and should be 'watched' — and had broken the party's code of conduct. The contest also saw the [[Scottish Greens]] co-leader Patrick Harvie see off a challenge from a radical faction in Glasgow to oust him as the party's top candidate in the city. The other co-leader, Lorna Slater, and Mr Harvie's ally Ross Greer also warded off challenges from radical Greens, claiming the top spot in Lothian and the West of Scotland respectively. Meanwhile, the party's leadership election is underway following a decision by Mr Harvie to stand down from his role as co-leader. Mr Greer is seen as the favourite to succeed him though he may face a challenge from the same group of Scottish Green eco-socialists, known as the Glasgow faction, who opposed Mr Harvie in Glasgow. They have been critical of how the Greens have operated in recent years, and opposed the Bute House agreement, which was a power-sharing deal between the SNP and Greens. It is understood that Ellie Gomersall, who was second placed on the Glasgow list, had concerns some votes were not transferred to her from candidates who were knocked out in earlier voting rounds. "Ellie has raised it with the party. She has asked for the count to be reviewed," one source told The Herald yesterday. Shetland Councillor Alex Armitage raised concerns about the count in the north east. "There's something that makes me feel uncomfortable and I want to flag it here," he wrote on a party internal communication channel which has been seen by The Herald. "I'm concerned about the selection process in the North East region, which I think should be thoroughly investigated by the party as soon as possible." The Scottish Greens and Ms Gomersall was contacted for comment.
