The Alba Party angrily denies allegations it has illegally nominated by-election candidates - but does the denial raise more questions than answers?

As you may have seen on The National's website, the Alba Party is belatedly now a McEleny-free zone.  A whole six months after his expulsion from the party, Chris McEleny has been forcibly removed as Alba's Nominating Officer, and the Electoral Commission website confirms he has been replaced by his former deputy as General Secretary, Corri Wilson. It's something of a surprise that the Electoral Commission have agreed to remove him against his will, because a literal reading of their rules suggested that it was near-impossible for that to happen unless he died, was incapacitated, or kidnapped by a lost Amazonian tribe - but perhaps they decided a man remaining an officer of a party he had been long since expelled from pushed the boundaries of absurdity a touch too far.

(Incidentally, a few days before McEleny was ousted as GenSec at the start of the year, Wilson posted a video of herself on Facebook gloating in coded language about what was about to happen, so it's reasonable to see her as the Macro to McEleny's Sejanus.  The ominous news for Wilson and the wider Corri Nostra is that, as fans of I, Claudius know, Macro eventually met exactly the same grisly fate as the man he toppled.)

In the National piece, McEleny repeats the allegation that was made to me in an anonymous email on Friday - ie. he says that Alba's local by-election candidates this year were illegitimately nominated, because none of them had his authorisation as Nominating Officer.  An Alba spokesperson is quoted hotly denying that any illegality has occurred - 

"There is no truth in the suggestion that the Alba Party has acted improperly or illegally when nominating candidates for local by-elections.  In every case, the electoral requirements have been valid and in order as evidenced by the acceptance of multiple returning officers."

An anonymous commenter on this blog has made the following observation about that - 

"The Alba statement might get them in hot bother as it shows they’re incompetent or lying. Returning officers accept forms at face value. If the form has been signed saying authority has been granted the RO doesn’t take any other action. The breaking of the law will be that surely McEleny didn’t sign the forms or grant authority to do so, so either Corri Nostra is in trouble for pretending to candidates they had authority or the candidates themselves will be thrown under the bus."

I wouldn't be totally surprised if that comment was left by the same person who anonymously contacted me by email on Friday, and I also wouldn't be totally surprised if that person is...well, I'm sure you can join the dots for yourselves.  Just to reiterate my disclaimer from Friday, I have no legal expertise, so I have no idea whose interpretation of the law is correct.  I'm just providing you with the quotes for information.

(UPDATE, 1.15am:  I've been emailed again by the anonymous source, who says that the public statements from Alba do not match what is being told in private to senior members of the party.)

Meanwhile, the bigger picture is that Alba, which has already been reduced to fringe party status without parliamentary representation, is heading for an unmitigated catastrophe in next year's Holyrood election.  The most recent poll (from YouGov) has them on just 1% of the list vote - even less than they received in 2021.

 

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