Scottish Greens admit error in vote counting process
There are some changes in the regional lists and in Edinburgh the new regional list removes Connal Hughes who is replaced by Mariusz Cebulski, and moves Cllr Kayleigh O'Neill above Cllr Chas Booth. The top three candidates on the regional list remain the same as before.
The new regional list is as follows:
Edinburgh and Lothians East
Lorna Slater MSP
Kate Nevens
Q Manivannan
Cllr Kayleigh O'Neill
Cllr Chas Booth
Adam Al-khateb
Jo Phillips
Mridul Wadhwa
Dan Heap
Dr Astri JS Kvassnes
Alex Staniforth
Mariusz Cebulski
The previous list was as follows:
Edinburgh & Lothians East:
Lorna Slater MSP
Kate Nevens
Q Manivannan
Cllr Chas Booth
Cllr Kayleigh O'Neill
Adam Al-khateb
Mridul Wadhwa
Jo Phillips
Cllr Dan Heap
Dr Astri JS Kvassnes
Cllr Alex Staniforth
Connal Hughes
A Scottish Greens spokesperson said: 'The Scottish Greens are a proudly democratic party that gives every member a voice in our decision-making.
'We sourced a third-party provider to host and count the ballot papers for this year's selection process for the Holyrood election. Following concerns raised by members who had reviewed the voting data, party officials sought advice from the third-party provider on Monday afternoon. The party was assured that the counting had been completed and confirmed to meet the standards requested under our internal party rules.
'During further investigation by the third-party provider, they later discovered a software error in an external programme used to count votes. The party was first made aware of this on Tuesday morning.
'Party officials were not aware of this error at the time of previous statements, and had been reassured by the third-party provider on Monday afternoon that all counting had been completed and verified.
'Following a full revised count with oversight and verification from current party officials and those involved in previous Holyrood selections, we can confirm our full list of candidates for the Holyrood 2026 campaign. All of the previously announced 15 lead candidates remain duly selected and will continue to lead the party's campaign to elect a record number of MSPs.
'We would like to thank the volunteers and staff who worked to identify and resolve this situation under extreme pressure and to Mi-Voice for their cooperation in resolving the error. We understand that this has been a stressful process for candidates and members, and we thank them for their vigilance, patience and trust.
'We are looking forward to working with our strong Green candidates in this election campaign, in which we'll present our positive vision of a better future where people and planet are put above corporate greed'
The Director of Mi-Voice, Simon Thomson said: 'Mi-Voice were contracted by the Scottish Green Party (SGP) to provide the voting platform for their candidate selection process. We undertook that work and provided SGP with results, which they then published around midday on Monday 21st July 2025. At around 2pm, we were contacted by SGP office-bearers seeking clarification about the production process of the results. We responded to say that the process had been undertaken according to the agreed procedure.
'Later on the same afternoon, following further discussions, it came to our attention that the count sheets provided for the Holyrood selection results appeared to contain anomalies.
'Following a thorough review, the anomalies were traced to a technical fault with the vote counting software provided by a trusted third-party supplier, which was used in place of the Mi-Voice counting system due to the specific STV rules required. The technical fault impacted the transfer of following preferences in cases where a candidate had been withdrawn from the count to create the ordered list. Although our internal procedures for producing and verifying results were followed, this technical problem was undetected prior to the distribution of the original lists. We notified SGP office-bearers of this issue at around 10am on the morning of Tuesday 22nd July.
'The third-party software in question is a widely recognised and industry-standard vote counting tool. We have since reported the issue to the software vendor and have implemented a solution that enables accurate list production moving forward. Using this revised process, we have produced updated candidate lists, which have undergone additional manual validation to ensure they represent the final and accurate outcome. These corrected lists have now been shared with the Party.
'We acknowledge the concern this has raised for Party members and candidates. We understand the frustration and confusion, and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and concern it has caused.
'To ensure this does not happen again, we are reviewing our internal quality control measures and introducing enhanced checks, particularly for scenarios involving candidate withdrawals to facilitate the production of ordered lists.
'We remain committed to transparency, responsiveness and continuous improvement.'
Central Scotland and Lothians West
Gillian Mackay MSP
Cllr Claire Williams
Cameron Glasgow
Edinburgh and Lothians East
Lorna Slater MSP
Kate Nevens
Q Manivannan
Cllr Kayleigh O'Neill
Cllr Chas Booth
Adam Al-khateb
Jo Phillips
Mridul Wadhwa
Dan Heap
Dr Astri JS Kvassnes
Alex Staniforth
Mariusz Cebulski
Glasgow
Patrick Harvie MSP
Ellie Gomersall
Cllr Holly Bruce
Iris Duane
Cllr Seonad Hoy
Malena Roche
Rana Noor Mohamed
Isabel Ruffell
Kit Renard
Highlands and Islands
Ariane Burgess MSP
Cllr Kristopher Leask
Cllr Kate Willis
Cllr Dræyk van der Hørn
Cllr Alex Armitage
Anne Thomas
Julie Christie
Mid Scotland and Fife
Mark Ruskell MSP
Mags Hall
Caitlin Ripley
Ryan Blackadder
Marie Stadtler
Clare Andrews
Andrew Adam
Paul Vallot
Elspeth Maclachlan
North East Scotland
Guy Ingerson
Maggie Chapman MSP
Esme Houston
William Linegar
Sylvia Hardie
Kathryn Vincent
Charlotte Horne
Remi Joseph Michel Salvan
South Scotland
Laura Moodie
Ann McGuinness
Dominic Ashmole
Cllr Neil MacKinnon
Barbra Harvie
Cameron Garrett
Tim Clancey
Tom Kerr
Korin Matthew Vallance
West Scotland
Ross Greer MSP
Cara McKee
Louise Andersen
Karen Sharkey
Athol Bond
Ian Sinkins
Paula Baker
Ross Collins
Charley O'Hear
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