POLICE are continuing to examine allegations that pro-Union agents broke electoral law by looking at postal ballot results to see how well the No campaign was doing before the main Scottish independence poll had taken place.

The complaints passed to the force by the independent elections watchdog, the Electoral Commission, arose from comments made by Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Conservative leader and a prominent support of the Better Together campaign.

She said 45 minutes after the ballots closed that they had been "incredibly encouraged" by the results of a "sample opening" of the postal ballot which she said had taken place around the country over the few weeks prior to the poll closing.

She said agents were able to "take tallies" of postal ballots "and the reports have been very positive for us".

Police Scotland said last night the complaints were still being "assessed".

Meanwhile in the wake of the row, Ms Davidson tweeted support for a pro-independence blog that she said "blows the conspiracy theories out of the water" by stating, "we certainly didn't lose because of shenanigans at the counts".

Complaints sent to police and the Electoral Commission surrounded agents being able to see the ballot papers and communicate how the vote was going in advance during opening sessions across Scotland.

Guidance on postal votes states it is an offence for anyone attending the opening of postal votes "to attempt to ascertain how any vote has been cast or to communicate any such information obtained".