More hanging chad type issues in Glenrothes where surprisingly Labour, against trend, held the seat with a 6,737 majority against a strong SNP effort. Guido has previously reported on suspicious levels of postal ghost votes and the subsequent disappearance of the register despite the legal requirement to keep the register for a year.

Now the Electoral Commission is weighing in with a report :

“We do have some concerns that the count was not as transparent as it could have been, due to the layout of tables in the hall. One table where votes were being counted was not clearly within the view of candidates, agents or other observers.Also, the central tables where the votes for each candidate were collated were situated behind the returning officer’s platform and obscured from view.”

The report also said the first opening of returned postal votes were not opened until the day before polling day meaning a problem with the electronic scanning equipment used to adjudicate postal votes could not be resolved in good time. That by-election was very fishy.