A SCOTS council is engulfed in a row over rules on political bias following complaints residents were being encouraged to vote for major parties in the local elections.
Several candidates standing in affluent East Renfrewshire have said the authority's promotional material featuring the leaders of Labour, the SNP and the Tories was in breach of the law governing polls.
The council has scrapped use of the image, which showed the three leaders and the authority's returning officer, its chief executive Lorraine McMillan, holding numbers to illustrate the voting system used in local elections and was issued as part of a media campaign and on the East Renfrewshire website.
But a number of independents contesting the May 4 poll are now citing council bias against them, even claiming the returning officer should step down and claiming the matter should be investigated by the police
They have accused the council of breaching Section 2 of the Local Government Act which states that in the purdah closed period local authorities should “not publish any material which, in whole or in part, appears to be designed to affect public support for a political party”.
The council has said that while it "takes political neutrality extremely seriously" and while it believed the image to be non-partisan had removed it due to complaints.
Bev Brown, independent candidate for Newton Mearns South and Eaglesham, said: “I find it hard to believe the council's returning officer is unaware that we are currently in a period of purdah in the run up to the election on May 4, therefore I can only assume the council is arrogantly continuing to make it up as it goes along by issuing material that is neither impartial nor legal.
"And they want voters to believe they are credible? Ms McMillan should stand down immediately and voters need to know they cannot be trusted.”
David MacDonald, independent candidate for Clarkston, Netherlee and Williamwood, said: “I am both shocked and disappointed in the returning officer’s decision to promote the STV system in such a way involving three candidates from the three main political parties only.
“Not only does it imply to only vote for three preferences, it suggests that those preferences should be from the three main political parties only. “Not only is it unfair to all the other candidates running, it is unfair to the electors to put out such misleading information."
He added: "This is a very serious matter that may require investigation by the Electoral Commission and the police."
Paul Drury, independent candidate for the Giffnock and Thornliebank ward, was the first to alert Ms McMillan to the issue, adding: “I knew as soon as I saw the picture it was a breach of ‘purdah’ guidelines, designed to protect council officials from suspicions of bias."
Showing Labour group leader Jim Fletcher, his SNP counterpart Tony Buchanan and Conservative Stewart Miller, the promotional material was designed to encourage resident to vote in the local polls, which traditionally suffer from low turnout.
An East Renfrewshire Council spokesman said: “Voter turnout in East Renfrewshire is typically very high however participation in local elections has tended to be low in the past and we have therefore been doing all we can to promote the forthcoming election to our residents.
“The group leaders of the current parties represented within the council took part in a photo to accompany the news release. An independent councillor was invited to take part but was unavailable however did give support for the photo given its wholly non-political nature.
"At no time were we promoting any one party or candidate over another.
“We take political neutrality extremely seriously and have a very strong track record in this regard.
“Despite the non-political nature of the image we are aware that it has been perceived differently by some and have therefore withdrawn the image to ensure we can focus on the message which is about encouraging voter turnout.”
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