Fears over Scottish Labour using 'rigged' voting system involved in Met fraud probe
SUNDAY MAIL EXCLUSIVE: Members have already raised concerns about the online voting system being used by the party, which is part of a Met police fraud probe in England.
Scottish Labour members fear a controversial computer voting programme involved in a Met police fraud probe could be used to block left-wing candidates from standing as MSPs.
Anonyvoter, an online voting software, is being used by the party to pick candidates for the next general election, often alongside postal and in-person voting.
But the party has previously faced calls to ban the Anonyvoter system after it was criticised by unions and candidates who lost their reselections in favour of centrist candidates in the 2024 election.
Former MPs Angela Rayner' s partner Sam Tarry and Welsh MP Beth Winter instructed lawyers to challenge the party over the system's usage claiming it could be tampered with.
Both Tarry and Winter had received more votes from those who attended their selection contests in person, but lost out to their rivals via the online system.
Tarry called for the party to stop using Anonyvoter and said it was 'used to deselect me, rigged to change the result' while Winter called for a full investigation.
Now several Scottish Labour sources have told the Sunday Mail they fear the same issues are happening in Scotland following a selection for the Dundee West constituency earlier this month.
Left-wing MSP Mercedes Villalba lost out on standing as an MSP in favour of Michael Marra, who has been touted as a potential successor to Anas Sarwar.
Despite winning the vote in the room Villalba lost the contest due to the online votes cast through Anonyvoter.
Although the full tally is confidential the Sunday Mail understands that Marra received 'almost triple' the votes of Villalba online.
Trade unions previously demanded the party stop using the system for selections after claims it could be rigged in favour of certain candidates.
John McDonnell, former shadow chancellor, claimed Prime Minister Keir Starmer was on a 'search and destroy' mission to weed out the party's left wing and Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour's deputy leader, has also faced similar accusations in Scotland.
The Sunday Mail understands several Labour members have contacted the party with concerns about the use of Anonyvoter in Scotland.
One such member said: 'I emailed our local branch secretary last month as I was concerned about the fact we were having to use Anonyvoter but I didn't get any reply.
'I know someone else who also contacted the party's leadership team directly and was told that there had been no problem with Anonyvoter in Scotland and it was being used here. End of discussion.
'People are very sceptical of the system and don't understand why we are still using it when there were such problems before.'
Another member who has also raised concerns about Anonyvoter said: 'I'm worried that what we saw for the Westminster selections is now going to happen for the Holyrood ones. It seems to be already happening - just look at the situation in Dundee.'
A former Labour staffer said that Anonyvoter removed 'critical oversight' from selections and said: 'I can say that in standard parliamentary selections, ballot counting is carried out by staff but with clear oversight from CLP officials to ensure transparency and trust in the process.
'With Anonyvoter, that critical layer of local oversight is simply missing. We've already seen serious concerns raised about its accuracy and flaws, most notably in Croydon where the situation escalated to the point of police involvement.'
Alongside Tarry and Winter's concerns ahead of the General Election, the East Croydon Labour branch admitted there had been manipulation of member's data prior to its candidate selection and is now being probed by the Met.
Anonyvoter insisted that its software was unrelated to the incident and it was Labour's own internal database that had been tampered with.
Critics of Anonyvoter say that independent tellers are not given access to monitor the voting process and regional Labour figures are able to see who has voted, giving them the ability to whip up support for certain candidates among those yet to vote.
The software was developed by a former Labour councillor and provided to the party without any competitive tender process in 2020.
A Scottish Labour spokesman said: 'We have full confidence in the integrity of both selection processes and the use of Anonyvoter.
'Labour candidates are selected by the votes of local members who select the person they believe should represent them.
'All selections are carried out in line with rules and procedures agreed and overseen by Scottish Labour's Executive Committee.'
Anonyvoter was contacted for comment.
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