Labour loses bid to have Anas Sarwar’s name on ballot papers

The Labour Party has lost a last-minute bid to have Anas Sarwar's name included on ballot papers for the Scottish election.

The party took legal action against the Electoral Commission over what it said was the refusal to allow the slogan "Anas Sarwar - Labour's National Recovery Plan" to be on regional list ballots for the May 6 poll.

ast week the Electoral Commission said it could not deal with the application in time for the description to be included on ballots.

At a remote High Court hearing on Tuesday, Labour said refusing to include the slogan on regional list ballots would cause it "an unfair electoral disadvantage".

The party argued it would face "a situation where other parties, but not it, can use ballot paper descriptions that refer to their current leaders and/or up-to-date campaign straplines".

But the Electoral Commission said all applications to register a description had to be "considered by the Electoral Commission's internal approval board and published for public consultation" before they could be determined.

It also said Labour made its application "very late" and the party should not be "pushed up the queue" ahead of other applicants.

In a ruling yesterday, Mrs Justice Ellenbogen refused to grant Labour an order requiring the Electoral Commission to make a decision on its application before the deadline for delivering nominations later the same day.

Mr Sarwar said he was "disappointed" with the ruling.

The judge said permitting the order would cause prejudice to "other applicants, the electorate and the defendant's independence from political pressure".