The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Pro-independence party Alba unveils election candidates
F“That
is the choice I will be taking to people in the Yes City of Dundee
ormer SNP Lochee councillor Alan Ross will stand in Dundee Central at the general election for Alex Salmond’s proindependence Alba Party.
He will be joined in the campaign by activist Ghazi Khan who is standing in the new Arbroath and Broughty Ferry constituency.
Mr Ross – who will challenge sitting MP Chris Law – was an SNP city development chief and represented Lochee since 2007, going on to sit as an independent.
The Courier revealed his switch to Alba – the party’s first councillor – in 2022.
Announcing his new election campaign, Mr Ross said the impact of the Thatcher Tory years is still a legacy he’s fighting.
“Poverty levels are disgraceful in our city with far too many children now living below the poverty line in Scotland,” he said.
“Alba Party have a broad range of policies which would lead to the eradication of poverty from Scotland for good.”
Mr Ross, who has always lived in Dundee, went to Menzieshill High School before training as a chef.
He was a youth worker before leaving Abertay with a degree in criminology.
He was a councillor in Lochee from 2007 to 2022 and now helps with the rehabilitation of men with alcohol and drug addiction.
Mr Ross said his former party is not focused on independence enough, adding: “That is the choice I will be taking to people in the Yes City of Dundee.”
Mr Khan went to St John’s High and also graduated from Abertay University, with a degree in civil engineering. Alba said his dad worked in the jute industry before starting businesses in Dundee and Arbroath, recently retiring from his convenience store after running it for 25 years.
The new candidate for Arbroath and Broughty Ferry said: “I am determined to make a change for the people I have grown up and lived with and will work hard for them if elected.
“The mainstream parties have let people down, and have focused on their own fortunes and governed in their own interests instead of the interests of the people in our community.”