THE Scottish Greens have hit out against a decision to allow a far-right "spoiler party" to stand in the Scottish Election after it emerged they spent just £25 on their campaign – which was used to pay their sign-up fee.
It comes after analysis by The National revealed the Independent Green Voice (IGV) – founded by former Ukip Scottish organiser and Holocaust denier Alistair McConnachie – likely blocked the Greens from winning an additional regional seat, which instead went to the Scottish Conservatives.
The Electoral Commission has published the accounts for Scotland's political parties, revealing the IGV spent just £25 in 2025. This was their registration fee paid to the EC in order to stand in the election.
No expenditure was made on campaigning, promotional material or staffing costs.
Despite this, and having no presence online, with a thin "manifesto" uploaded onto a website on the day of the election, the IGV secured 2490 votes in the Mid Scotland and Fife region, 0.9% of the vote.
The Scottish Greens won 36,286 and the Scottish Conservatives won 37,155, a gap of 0.3% of the vote share.
Based on this and the weighting mechanism known as the d'Hondt method, if the IGV had not been allowed to stand and even a small portion of their voters instead crossed the box for the Scottish Greens, their candidate Mags Hall would have been elected instead of former Scottish Tory chief whip Stephen Kerr.
The Electoral Commission has continually brushed aside hundreds of complaints from voters and the Greens about the party, including from those who complained that elderly relatives had been tricked by the IGV's branding.
Following the publishing of the IGV's accounts, the Scottish Greens co-leader Gillian Mackay told The National: "The so-called Independent Green Voice is not a political party, it is a wrecking operation that sets out to trick voters.
"There is nothing remotely green about them and from these accounts they clearly don't do any campaigning.
"Their presence on the ballot has clearly confused voters over multiple elections which has been evident in the results.
"The fact this has been allowed to happen again and again undermines our democracy and the integrity of our elections.
"The Electoral Commission has failed to get a grip on this, and we hope this will cause them to reflect.”
The Scottish Greens have repeatedly complained after the IGV changed their logo from a forearm with a thumbs up to a leaf with the words “Independent Green Voice”, with Green in larger letters.
The 2026 election snub came after the Greens lost out in two tight-run contests in the 2021 Holyrood election, blaming the IGV.
In the 2021 election, the group won 2210 votes in Glasgow, where the Greens were 1000 votes away from taking a second regional seat which eventually went to the Tories. In South Scotland, the race was even closer, as IGV won 1690 votes, where the Greens only needed 100 votes to take the final regional seat.
The National previously revealed that more than 300 complaints from voters concerning about the party’s name and logo potentially misleading voters were submitted to the Electoral Commission in 2021.
Despite this, the EC has routinely denied accusations that the IGV has broken its rules.
Responding to The National following the investigation into the Mid Scotland and Fife election result, a spokesperson said there are "clear and sufficient differences" between the appearances of the two parties.
The commission said: "We assess applications for party names, descriptions and emblems against the criteria set out in law, including the requirement to ensure that in our opinion voters would not likely be confused between two parties as a result of how their identity marks look on a ballot paper. If a party’s application meets the legal criteria, it must be registered.
"We are satisfied that there are clear and sufficient differences between Independent Green Voice's registered name, descriptions and emblems, and those used by other parties on the register. Independent Green Voice has been registered since 2003."
An Electoral Commission spokesperson responded to the Scottish Greens' latest comments, saying: "We have written to the Scottish Green Party to explain the law and our position on this matter on a number of occasions, most recently in May and June this year.
"These letters have included offers to meet with Scottish Green Party leaders to discuss their concerns about Independent Green Voice’s name and emblem.
"These offers were not taken up. We remain open to a discussion."
