A former Infrastructure Minister has said she would ‘support’ a full Isle of Man General Election recount following discrepancies identified during a recount in Onchan.

Michelle Haywood ran for re-election in Rushen, finishing fourth in the polls with 790 votes, behind Simon Williams (1,040), Mark Kemp (1,120) and Michael Crowe (1,878).

The recount in Onchan, requested by Julie Edge, did not change the overall result in Onchan but resulted in significant adjustments to individual candidates' vote totals.

Peter Karran received an additional 100 votes, while Rob Callister gained 81.

Simon Williams said the Onchan recount had raised questions about the accuracy of the wider election process, and called for an island-wide recount to take place.

Dr Haywood agreed with him, and said ‘public trust in the elections has been damaged’.

In a post on her Facebook page, she said: ‘The best way for the government to rebuild that trust would be to recount all the constituencies, and demonstrate that the results posted on the night (when constituencies were in a race to post and counting was taking place after a long day in the polling stations) were in fact accurate.

‘Perhaps we should move to securing ballot boxes overnight and then starting the count the next day?

‘I would support an island-wide recount in order to reassure everyone that the right results have been reported.’

Mr Williams also referred to a social media post published by Mr Kemp on September 7, ahead of the general election, in which the successful candidate raised concerns about the postal ballot system.

Mr Kemp stated: ‘If I'm elected, I will be calling for an investigation into the running of this election, as the postal ballots are by no means the only issue.’

Referring to the post, Mr Williams said: ‘So there you have it, Mr Kemp's own words that he will demand an investigation into this general election. He did this on September 7, so he already knew there were issues.’

Dr Haywood added: ‘You can’t fault Simon’s logic. Mr Kemp had previously said he would call for an investigation, and Simon was only 80 votes away - which is smaller than the changes made to the Onchan tally.’