A CANDIDATE defeated by one vote in the Richmondshire local elections after his request for a second recount was refused has contacted the Electoral Commission.

Conservative Iain McDougall was pipped at the post by Independent Tom Burrows in the Richmond East ward, where four candidates contested the two seats on May 1.

The initial count concluded that Mr Burrows had polled 410 votes and Mr McDougall 409, putting him in third place. Both agreed to a recount, which indicated 409 votes for Mr Burrows and 408 for Mr McDougall.

Mr McDougall objected and called for a further recount after Harry Tabiner, district council chief executive and presiding officer at the count, adjudicated the result in favour of the Independent candidate. Now he has referred the matter to the Electoral Commission.

"There is a mechanism to resurrect the election but that would cost thousands of pounds and it would not be worthwhile to do that," said Mr McDougall. "However, my instincts told me that the refusal of a second recount was unfair and unreasonable and that is why I contacted the commission.

"I hope it will conclude that I have a valid point and make some sort of comment to the council about it."

The first recount was carried out in 30 minutes and he saw no reason why, when the result was so close, that another should not have gone ahead.

Mr Tabiner was satisfied he had acted properly and stressed that scrutiny of the recount in particular was very stringent.

"It was the same result, with one vote in it, and I was satisfied that it was correct," he said. "We were using tick sheets rather than counting ballot papers because it was a multi-candidate ward. We had two people looking at each ballot paper, one reading the name and the other ticking them off, which is a much more accurate way of calculating the votes."

Mr McDougall accepted that his referral to the commission would not reverse his fortunes at the election. However, he said it served as a reminder to electors that every vote does count.