ALBA have accused the BBC of “blocking” their party political broadcast in what the party said highlights a "democratic deficit" in their treatment.
With two MPs, Alex Salmond’s party said it had enough political representation to justify being given an advert on the BBC, but are being denied the opportunity.
Alba were allowed to broadcast their party political broadcast in the run-up to the local elections earlier this year, in which they lost a number of councillors and were left with no representation on any local authorities in Scotland.
But the party said they have been denied a second go around – as all other mainstream parties have done in the last two months.
They have pushed the video on social media and racked up more than 169,000 views on Twitter.
Chris McEleny previously told The National the video was shot on a shoestring budget and featured no professional actors, and included a song by The Proclaimers given to the party free-of-charge.
Ofcom’s rules say that political parties may not be offered a party political broadcast if they cannot evidence “past electoral support” or “current support at a particular election or in that nation”.
A BBC spokesperson said: “The criteria for party political broadcasts are set down in Ofcom rules.
“After allocation by the broadcasters to qualifying parties, there is a process for other parties to follow if they believe that they also meet the criteria.”
Alba could be disqualified on the basis they garnered just 0.7% of first preference votes in the Scottish council elections earlier this year.
But the party pointed to recent polling which put them on 4% of the regional list vote in a future Scottish parliament election – a figure they said could see them gain seats across the country at the next Holyrood ballot.
For comparison, the Greens managed 8% of the list vote at the last election, which translated into eight seats for the party across Scotland.
The BBC was approached for further clarification.
McEleny said: “Televised party political broadcasts guarantee a mass audience, which every party wants so it’s an obvious democratic deficit for the BBC to be the sole arbiter of what amounts to sufficient support in line with Ofcom’s guidance and refusing to intimate what level that actually is in their view.
“The most recent opinion poll shows that Alba Party are within touching distance of winning eight seats in the Scottish Parliament.
“Well over half of the population support independence or are sympathetic to the idea, as the only political party in Scotland that is advocating Scottish independence as an immediate priority.
“Surely in a functioning democracy this is something a state broadcaster be conscientious of?
“However, it is clear that the BBC’s decision has led to massive online popularity of our broadcast highlighting the absurdity that in energy-rich Scotland we have fuel-poor Scots. An issue that no matter which unelected Tory becomes the next Prime Minister will not go away.”
Ofcom said Alba could complain to them if they wanted the BBC's decision to be reconsidered.
