| The newly selected Labour candidate, city council administration leader Jill Shimi, has asked the Electoral Commission to look into whether electoral law has been broken by her SNP opponent, Councillor Joe FitzPatrick, offering to donate his severance payment for standing down from the council to local charities if he is elected.
Mr FitzPatrick said today that, since the letter was made public, he had received a positive response from the public.
“I have been getting very positive feedback on this from people on the doorstep while campaigning,” he said. “People are saying my comments are positive and Councillor Shimi’s are vindictive.
“I am not going to be distracted by this, and will continue to campaign positively as I have done since I was selected as the SNP candidate in February.”
He said Mrs Shimi appeared to have created the impression she thought she was unlikely to win the seat and was keeping her options open.
He added, “My concern is that, if councillor Shimi continues this irresponsible negative line of campaigning, it will turn voters off and affect turnout next May.”
Mrs Shimi also said she had received much positive public feedback from the public for her decision to seek the advice of the Electoral Commission.
“The reason I wrote to the commission was because people were saying to me they did not think this (Mr FitzPatrick’s offer) could be right,” she said. “People were asking how it could be a fair election when someone was making an offer like this.”
Mrs Shimi dismissed the suggestion she did not believe she could win the Dundee West constituency.
“I have decided not to take the severance payment because I intend to continue in public life and don’t want to rule out any options in the future,” she said.
Mr FitzPatrick has said he is satisfied he has not breached the electoral legislation and branded Mrs Shimi’s action as politically motivated.
Both candidates were challenged, in a letter in the Evening Telegraph, to say what they would do with the money to which they are entitled as retiring councillors. In Mr Fitzpatrick’s case it is Ł10,000 and for Mrs Shimi, because she has been on the council for longer, it is Ł15,000.
Mrs Shimi has said she will not be taking the money as one of the stipulations is that the recipient cannot stand for election as a councillor again.
Mr FitzPatrick responded with a letter of his own in which he said “If the people of Dundee West do me the honour of electing me as their MSP I intend to donate this (the Ł10,000) to local charities and community projects in Dundee.” Following that, Mrs Shimi wrote to the Electoral Commission asking to be advised as to whether Mr FitzPatrick’s statement constituted a breach of electoral law by offering a financial inducement to vote for him in the Holyrood elections.
The commission confirmed they would be looking into the matter. |
