A CANDIDATE who was suspended from the SNP amid allegations of a “stitch-up” has told The National his membership has been reinstated.
Toni Giugliano, who was in the running to be the party’s candidate for Falkirk West at the Holyrood election next year, said that his appeal against the suspension has been upheld.
Speaking to The National on Monday, Giugliano (below) said: “I’m delighted that the SNP’s Conduct Appeals Committee unanimously upheld my appeal and dismissed the complaint that led to my removal from the Falkirk West selection ballot, days before the poll closed.
“I should never have been suspended and removed from the ballot. The committee’s report is clear that I was denied a fair hearing. Indeed, I should have been cleared.”
He claimed the result was a “full vindication for the members who voted for me and stood by me”, adding: “I will now consult both with my supporters in Falkirk and the party, about what comes next.
“But make no mistake – our membership is the foundation of the SNP and they must never again be sidelined and disenfranchised. I’m pleased that due process has finally prevailed.”
An SNP member in Falkirk supportive of Giugliano claimed that the local council leader Cecil Meiklejohn, who made the first complaint against Giugliano, had attempted to get him off the ballot paper to boost the chances of her son-in-law, Iain Sinclair, who failed to win the nomination.
They said: "We’ve been saying for weeks that this process was flawed and Toni was stitched up. The selection process has no legitimacy whatsoever. The national secretary must either re-run the contest or hand in his resignation.
"Toni was winning this contest by a country mile here but Swinney didn’t want someone who would work too hard, push too hard for independence, while the council leader wanted her son-in-law."
The Conduct Appeals Committee found the decision to suspend Giugliano was "procedurally unfair and prejudiced the member to a significant extent" because he was unable to provide a lower committee with evidence to put across his side of the story, according to documents seen by The National.
The committee's report found that the National Secretary had pre-emptively decided which evidence to give to the Member Conduct Committee, which had been provided with evidence to back up claims Giugliano had bullied other members.
The report said: "The [national secretary] stated at the hearing that he saw his role as akin to the procurator fiscal in a criminal matter, and that he did not need to provide evidence other than that in support of the complaint.
"The [Conduct Appeals Committee] does not agree. The [national secretary] should have provided the [Member Conduct Committee] with all the relevant evidence. This would have enabled the [Member Conduct Committee] to hold a fair hearing and and reach a decision on all relevant material."
A complaint of bullying was made against Giugliano just days before the local party voted to choose its candidate for next year’s election.
He was running against three others and councillor Gary Bouse emerged victorious.
But the complaint was dismissed by Giugliano’s supporters as a conspiracy to block him from running, with one member telling The Herald in May: “Toni has been stitched up and the voices of local members totally disregarded.”
A statement to SNP national secretary Alex Kerr (above, right) from the Falkirk South branch said: “The SNP is founded on the principles of democracy and the active participation of its members.
“We are therefore dismayed that Toni Giugliano – a vetted candidate – was removed from the ballot just days before the declaration of results, in a decision that is entirely politically motivated and lacking in transparency."
An SNP spokesperson said: "Understandably, we don’t comment on confidential internal processes.”
