Obviously it must be fraud.

The official register of all those who voted in the crucial Glenrothes by-election in November was lost within days of being handed over to the sheriff clerk in Kirkcaldy, it has been revealed.

THE official register of all those who voted in the crucial Glenrothes by-election in November was lost within days of being handed over by the returning officer to the sheriff clerk in Kirkcaldy, it has been revealed.

The loss has prompted an investigation by the Scottish Court Service, but Tricia Marwick, the SNP MSP for Central Fife, yesterday called for an independent inquiry.

“The marked registers are an essential element of any election campaign. They allow a check of who voted, but not how they voted, to confirm that the election was conducted properly,” she said.

“Without these records there is no evidence of either a fair or unfair election and that undermines the confidence of everyone who took part.”

She added: “It is almost beyond belief that a by- election which attracted media coverage throughout the UK, which delivered a surprise result and had a much higher turnout than anticipated now has no records to show who actually voted.

“There now needs to be the fullest independent inquiry.”

Voting fraud

Mr Martin – now Lord Martin – held Glasgow North East in the 2005 General Election with a 10,134 vote majority.

It has emerged that police are investigating two alleged incidents of voting fraud in the contest.

Council chiefs said the investigation involved three ballot papers – two cast at a ballot box at one polling station in the Dennistoun area and another cast at another polling station in the same area.

A council spokesman said: “We had two incidents at polling stations where voters turned up and when they identified themselves they were told their names had already been scored off the list – somebody had been given a vote in their name.”

He continued: “We checked our processes to ensure it wasn’t a mistake, it wasn’t as far as we can see, so we called in the police.”

He said officers were investigating “alleged personation”.

So provide some evidence to back up your claims, please, or the comment is going in the bin.

There was obviously some level of electoral fraud, this was only supposed to have affected a few people but who knows? Will the marked up registers disappear as happened in Glenrothes after another suspiciously large Labour win?

Labour also played their divide ‘n’ rule card, rather than protestants vs catholics, or Britain vs Ireland they came up with Edinburgh vs Glasgow on the back of the decision to stop the Glasgow rail link. This was actually necessitated by budget cuts from Westminster. Neither Edinburgh or Glasgow Airports have rail links, though they would have years ago if Scotland had had its fair share of public investment.

They also drafted in activists from all over Britain, something they won’t be able to do in six months time.

1. You obviously don’t know what the term “rotten borough” meant. But then again most people who try to use it in a contemporary context don’t.

2. It’s not really surprising that the turnout was low, or even especially significant. More candidates on the ballot does not mean more choice for voters – most people in this part of Glasgow would only ever vote Labour and most of the rest vote SNP. All other parties are (in this part of Glasgow) fringe parties and joke parties. For a by-election in which the result was a foregone conclusion, the turnout wasn’t so bad, really – compare with similar constituencies in England over the past decade or so.

Eh?