From The Lennox, April 20, 2007

Party's £35,000 deposit rejected

A DUMBARTON parliamentary candidate is embroiled in a row with the Electoral Commission over the handling of the nomination of a colleague.

Dr John Black claims the commission refused to accept payment for the registration of an Iraqui candidate representing the Scottish Jacobite Party.

Dr Black, who founded the party 18 months ago, tried to register Jamal Alobaidi for the Edinburgh Central Constituency and the Lothians Region last Wednesday - the deadline for nominations.

When he offered to pay the deposit with a £35,000 banker's draft he was refused and was told the nomination was invalid - but this week he claimed Mr Alobaidi's nomination IS valid under the rules.

Dr Black, from Helensburgh, obtained the draft to cover deposits for candidates for all 70 regional and constituency seats. Several candidates pulled out leaving Mr Alobaidi, an Iraqui who has lived in Scotland for 20 years, as the only one standing.

The draft was refused despite the paperwork being completed in time.

Dr Black, himself a candidate in the Dumbarton Constituency and on the West of Scotland regional list, said: "This is another example of the intransigence of our system. I was willing to give them the £35,000 until the election was over".

A spokesman for the Commission said that it supported the returning officer's decision not to accept a £35,000 draft for a £500 deposit.

From Guidance for candidates and agents Scottish Parliamentary elections, 3 May 2007. The Electoral Commission.

Deposit

2.40 A deposit is required for nominations to the Scottish Parliament to be valid. A deposit of £500 is required for each constituency candidate, each individual regional candidate and each regional list of party candidates.

2.41 The deposit may be paid:

• in cash (legal tender)
• by banker's draft
• with the relevant Returning Officer's consent, in any other manner (including by debit or credit card or the electronic transfer of funds).

By accident, I discovered last weekend that Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia, had a page on The Scottish Jacobite Party filed under the category "Joke Political Party."

That entry changed after I filed in the Dumbarton Constituency and the West of Scotland Region. It seems that paying a £500 deposit is a declaration of serious political intent.

Is Democracy in Scotland a joke?

I need to get on to Wikipedia to get the American address of their legal department so that my American attorney can file the multi-million dollar law suit!

I had lunch yesterday in the chambers of my legal advisers in Glasgow with Senior Counsel to consider the options available to The Scottish Jacobite Party.

Surely the deposit of £35,000 where £1,000 was required is an indication that The Scottish Jacobite Party is serious about the business of Democracy in Scotland.

I am serious.

I have been serious since the party was launched on July 8th 2005.

I believed then, as I believe now, that Scotland can be a free and independent nation on May 4th.

Over the weekend, I will contemplate having senior counsel file an injunction in the Court of Session in Edinburgh to stop the 2007 Scottish Election.

So far, the legal opinion has cost me £6,000. The estimate for an injunction is £30,000. Serious money. A serious cause.

Over lunch, I was grilled by senior counsel on why I could reasonably expect the Deputy Returning Officers in the Edinburgh City Council offices to accept a bank draft for £35,000 for a deposit of £1,000.

Repeatedly, I went over the time line of events since April 2nd.

I was attempting to register as many candidates in Scottish Constituencies and Regions as possible. While ideas can stand on their own, distribution to the wider population needs a cooperative media. They react to the perceived size of the political party. It becomes a numbers game. Get the numbers right and you get on tele like the BNP with their own Party Political Broadcast.

Senior counsel was troubled by my insistance that I expected the Deputy Returning Officers to accept the £35,000 bank draft.

I refuse to accept that Scotland is a backward country, where a democratic election rests on a very narrow definition of a deposit regulation. A deposit with the clear purpose of establishing serious political intent!

On Saturday 7th April 2007, I sent an e-mail to The Electoral Commission in Edinburgh:-

As I understand the current system, candidates are required to file in the offices of the returning officers for each of the Scottish constituencies and regions.

Since The Scottish Jacobite Party is based in Helensburgh, would it be possible to file the relevant documents and deposits for all of the constituencies and regions of Scotland with the Returning Officer for Dumbarton?

I got the reply on the evening of 10th April. The answer - it is not possible to file centrally.

To file candidates in all Scottish Constituencies and Regions requires a physical presence in thirty two (32) different council offices across the length and breadth of Scotland.

Up to the last moment, I was negotiating to have someone from Stornoway stand in the Highlands and Islands Region. This would have required that the papers and deposit be filed in Dingwall!

The Electoral Commission offices are in Thistle Street in Edinburgh. This is just off Hanover Street.

This is another standoff between the Jacobites and the Hanoverians.

In 1691, MacDonald of Glencoe was required to sign an oath of allegiance to King William. The oath was a sign of submission of Jacobite supporters to the Hanoverian ruler.

Glencoe was in Fort William on December 31st 1691 to sign the required document by the deadline. Colonel Hill the governor refused Glencoe's request on a legal technicality.

Glencoe was told that he was in the wrong place and should have signed it in Inverary. By the time, he was in Inverary, the deadline had passed.

The Hanoverian Government decided to make an example of the MacDonalds and the Massacre of Glencoe was the result.

The decision to slaughter the MacDonalds in cold blood was made by some of the same cast of characters who sold Scotland for English gold in the 1707 Union.

What has changed in the last 316 years?

Surely, it is time to bring Scottish election laws into the light of the twenty first century. Time to recognise that modern technology exists; that it is possible to communicate by phone, by fax or the internet. Time to file in a central place without having to be in thirty two different places at the filing deadline.

And time to end the Union!

Vote Scottish Jacobite on May 3rd.