A CONTROVERSIAL crofting chief who was recently voted out from his post in a nationwide election may have won had several crofters received their ballot papers on time.
Some crofters claim they didn’t receive their voting papers in time for the recent elections to the Crofting Commission and had they done so their votes could have changed the result.
Colin Kennedy, whose actions at the Crofting Commission were the source of a row, has been unsuccessful in being re-elected.
All those who are complaining are in the South West Highlands area.
Mr Kennedy, the former controversial convener, lost by just two votes.
He had led in the first three rounds of counting under Alternative Voting system on March 17, in which voters ranked candidates in order of preference. Voting packs had been sent out by post
Mr Kennedy has already raised other concerns about the way the votes were counted and has promised to pursue the matter and has called the a rerun of the election.
But Derek MacKay, the Returning Officer in the Western Isles, said he was confident the election wad been carried properly in accordance with the relevant legislation.
Crofter Rosie Curtis, from Kilchoan on the Ardnamurchan Peninsula, said she had been waiting for her papers to arrive. She said: “Then, 10 days before the deadline I phoned and was told they would be sent out. Five days to go and they still had not arrived, so phoned up again.
“They finally arrived on the Friday, the day they were starting to count the vote in Stornoway. To add insult to injury I had to pay the post office £2 to get them. I know of others round here who did not receive them.
“What’s worse is I am a volunteer assessor for the Crofting Commis-
sion, but have been denied my vote, which I would have cast for Colin. So he might well have won.”
Another who said he would have voted for Mr Kennedy was a crofter in Tiree, who asked to remain anonymous. He said: “My voting papers didn’t arrive until the day before. I posted them off immediately but they wouldn’t have got there in time. ”
The first elections to the board of crofting’s regulatory body were held in 2012. Commissioners serve five-year terms. The election involves six constituencies covering crofting in Argyll, Highlands and Western and Northern isles.
Western Isles Council ran the election on behalf of the Scottish Government.
It issued ballot papers to eligible electors on February 23, but on March 3 it issued a statement saying a number of replacement postal packs had been issued for the election explaining: “Due to an error by external printers, a number of the original postal packs issued had an incomplete address.”
A Western Isles Council spokesman said: “The responsibility for the compilation of the Crofting Electoral Register rests with the chief executive of the Crofting Commission. Any queries should be directed to the commission.”
A commission spokeswoman said it produced the electoral roll passed to the council but added: “We take no further part in the process.”
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