THE race to become Rector of Aberdeen University has been marred by a "dirty tricks" campaign forcing university bosses to order a new vote.

It comes amid allegations that supporters of one of the candidates – sitting rector Scottish Greens co-convenor Maggie Chapman – were involved in tearing down campaign posters of her rivals vying for the post.

A smaller number of election posters of all candidates are believed to have been stripped from the walls, it is understood.

The Herald: The research was carried out at the University of Aberdeen

The university is believed to have found widespread breaches of electoral rules prompting a decision to re-run the election.

But the move condemned Ms Chapman's campaign team who strongly deny any wrongdoing and said there was no evidence to support the claims.

They insisted it was "much more likely" the complaints were a ruse to annul the election and the decision undermined "the votes cast by students in good faith for all candidates".

They further called for the results to be released in the interests of "democratic transparency".

The ancient post of Rector of the University of Aberdeen has a rich tradition dating back to the foundation of the institution in 1495 and has been held by notables such as former Prime Ministers Winston Churchill and Herbert Henry Asquith, steel industrialist Andrew Carnegie and actor Iain Cuthbertson.

The Herald: Winston Churchill

The Rector since 1860 was the students' only representative, and, in more recent years, their main representative on the University Court.

A university spokeswoman said: “Following consideration of an appeal in regard to the Rectorial election, the Elections Committee have agreed to declare the election null and void and to re-run the election in the New Year. Further information on the timing of the election and the call for nominations will be issued in due course.”

Ms Chapman's opponents were University of Aberdeen alumnus Andrew Bowie, the MP for West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine, student Angus Hepburn, from Kippen, near Stirling and the singer, broadcaster and producer Fiona Kennedy.

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Ms Chapman's campaign team said the allegations were not a strong reason to annul the election and "undermines the votes cast by students in good faith for all candidates".

They  said it remained clear to everyone that the Scottish Green Party co-convenor had won and that the election process was sound, with no suggestion of vote-rigging, voter intimidation, or impersonation.

"In any other circumstances, the result would be announced," a campaign source said. We call on the university to not disregard the valid votes of students, to respect democratic transparency, and release the result.

"We are in this situation because on the last afternoon of campaigning, having concluded they couldn’t win the election on their own merits, the losing campaigns chose to go, mob-handed, to pressurise the Returning Officer into disqualifying their opponent.

"They failed to do this but did manage to convince him to annul the election. This decision undermines the votes cast by students in good faith for all candidates. To protect these students, we appealed this decision."

The Herald: Green co-convenors Patrick Harvie and Maggie Chapman unveil party's 2016 manifesto. Picture by Gordon Terris.

Green co-convenors Patrick Harvie and Maggie Chapman unveiled the party's 2016 manifesto last . Picture by Gordon Terris.

The team said said it seemed more likely that the wind and rain were responsible for the loss of many of the posters, caused by a decision to stick them to lampposts with sellotape.

The campaign source added: "The losing campaign teams claim that hundreds of posters had been removed by our campaign team without anyone witnessing this. During the appeal process, it became clear that NO evidence was provided by these campaign teams to evidence their allegation that posters had been ripped down. We would like to make it clear that, much as we might wish to be, we are not ninjas.

"The contention that we had removed hundreds of campaign posters is obviously spurious, and their claim that it took until 4pm on the 11th day of campaigning - one hour before voting closed - for them to realise this is obviously absurd.

"It suggests that it is much more likely that their intention was to find a pretext to get the winning candidate disqualified or to have the election annulled."

The campaign team said they were "very confident" that students will back Ms Chapman in the re-vote.

"Maggie’s campaign team will keep fighting to make sure we have a Rector that really works for students and want to make it clear to students that their vote will count, and that we will do all we can to make sure that this is the case," said the campaign source.