THE Independent Green Voice, a far-right "party" founded by Alistair McConnachie, a former Scottish organiser for Ukip and a Holocaust denier, appear to have cost the Scottish Greens a crucial seat in Holyrood, saving a senior Tory's job.
The IGV's founder, McConnachie, founded pro-Union group A Force For Good and is a former Ukip member who was investigated by the party in 2001 after he made comments questioning the Holocaust.
The party also has a history of links to the British National Party (BNP). Ex-BNP activist Max Dunbar stood on the Scotland South list in 2021. Dunbar is a former treasurer for the Scottish branch of the party and was previously involved with Scotland in Union and Friends of Israel before both groups distanced themselves from him.
Former BNP activist John M B Robertson was also on the Central Scotland list. Robertson stood for the BNP in the 2009 Drumchapel/Anniesland council by-election.
READ MORE: Who are the far-right Independent Green Voice party?
The Scottish Greens have repeatedly complained to the Electoral Commission over the IGV's branding, after the campaign group changed their logo from a forearm with a thumbs up to a leaf with the words “Independent Green Voice”, with Green in larger letters.
During the 2021 Holyrood election the Greens accused the group of confusing voters, eventually costing them two seats in parliament.
The Electoral Commission has continually brushed aside hundreds of complaints from voters about the party, including from those who complained that elderly relatives had been tricked by the IGV.
A Scottish Greens spokesperson told The National: “Independent Green Voice are not the Scottish Greens. They are a spoiler party whose presence on the ballot appears to have confused voters and cost Mid Scotland and Fife a second Scottish Green MSP.
“They were listed above us on the ballot, took almost 1% of the vote, and our count teams saw clear evidence of confusion, including crossed-out ballots, double votes and difficult adjudications.
“If even a third of those votes had gone to the actual Scottish Green Party, pro-independence candidate, Mags Hall, would have been elected. Instead, Reform have taken two regional seats and Mark Ruskell MSP is left as the only pro-independence regional MSP out of seven.
“This cannot be brushed off. Independent Green Voice are not Green, not progressive and not connected to us. They are organised by Alistair McConnachie who was kicked out of UKIP. The Electoral Commission must urgently review how a party like this was allowed to mislead voters again.”
The Greens have previously labelled the IGV a "fascists' front", slamming the Electoral Commission for allowing "blatant electoral deceit".
On Thursday, the IGV, which has no policies, no manifesto and virtually no presence online or in person, won 2490 votes in the Mid Scotland and Fife region, 0.9% of the vote.
Elsewhere, the Scottish Greens won 36,286 and the Scottish Conservatives won 37,155, a gap of 0.3% of the vote share.
The list vote elects seven MSPs using a system called the d'Hondt method to weight the seats to ensure a more representative government. You can find more about the d'Hondt formula here, but the key details are that vote share is divided by the number of constituency seats won by the party in the region, plus one.
List MSPs are then allocated using this weighted total, however each seat gained then adds to the total divider, meaning for every regional seat gained it makes it more difficult to gain the next.
In Mid Scotland and Fife, there are nine constituencies, eight of which were won by the SNP, one by the LibDems.
The vote totals for each party
- SNP: 81,018
- Reform UK: 45,632
- Labour: 41,056
- Conservatives: 37,155
- Greens: 36,286
- LibDems: 34,363
- Alliance: 2802
- IGV: 2490
In reality, these results led to two seats for Reform UK, Scottish Labour and the Scottish Conservatives, as well as one for the Greens.
However, if we swapped the IGV votes to the Scottish Greens, they would have comfortably beaten the Conservatives on vote share, clinching the seventh seat, ousting former chief whip Stephen Kerr.
This could have had major implications for Holyrood as the Scottish Greens would grow to 16 MSPs while the Tories would drop to 11, a 20 seat drop from 2021.
The seat results if IGV votes went to the Greens
- Reform UK (45,632 / 1 = 45,632)
- Labour (41,056 / 1 = 41,056)
- Greens (38,776 / 1 = 38,776)
- Conservatives (37,155 / 1 = 37,155)
- Reform UK (45,632 / 2 = 22,816)
- Labour (41056 / 2 = 20,528)
- Greens (38,776 / 2 = 19,388)
The Scottish Greens had warned voters to be careful not to vote for the IGV. It comes after the party lost out in two tight-run contests in the 2021 Holyrood election, blaming the IGV.
In the 2021 election, the group won 2210 votes in Glasgow, where the Greens were 1000 votes away from taking a second regional seat which eventually went to the Tories. In South Scotland, the race was even closer, as IGV won 1690 votes, where the Greens only needed 100 votes to take the final regional seat.
The National previously revealed that more than 300 complaints from voters concerning about the party’s name and logo potentially misleading voters were submitted to the Electoral Commission in 2021.
The reports showed that the group had confused some voters and the similar name and logo was particularly dangerous for elderly voters or people with lower vision.
One wrote: “My mother, in her eighties did not know or expect there to be two Green parties, and she voted for the Independent Green Party in error as a result.
“I suspect many more people may make the same natural mistake.”
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Another voter, who said they are registered blind with low vision, also said they were confused by the party name and logo and that they “almost” voted for them.
They added: “This group seems to have intentionally misled voters and it is unacceptable that it should be allowed.”
Responding, the Electoral Commission claimed that there is "clear and sufficient differences" between the appearances of the two parties.
The commission said: "We assess applications for party names, descriptions and emblems against the criteria set out in law, including the requirement to ensure that in our opinion voters would not likely be confused between two parties as a result of how their identity marks look on a ballot paper. If a party’s application meets the legal criteria, it must be registered.
"We are satisfied that there are clear and sufficient differences between Independent Green Voice's registered name, descriptions and emblems, and those used by other parties on the register. Independent Green Voice has been registered since 2003."