  ES I understand the electoral system very well indeed thankyou. I did not observe the count, although I did speak to the BNP candidate Nick Holt afterwards -  By the way Nick regreated standing against the EFP afterwards, he was new to the movement and did not realise the BNP were just using him to stop Cotterill winning.  - Anyway Nick Holt said, and I have no reason to think he was lying, that he got roughly 200 BNP only votes and Cotterill got roughly 250 EFP only votes - ie these voters, voted for nobody else.  Now lets say 152 of Nick Holts BNP only voters had voted instead for Cotterill only - Cotterill would have got third spot and been elected.   We could also say, if Nick Holt had not stood, 152 of his 'would-be' voters may have given one of their other two votes to Cotterill - we will never know.  The bottom line is BNP went way out of their way - to the expence of other winable wards in Blackburn - to stand a no hope paper candidate against the EFP, just to make sure they did not win.  why, whats the motive?      Anyway Nick Holt said, and I have no reason to think he was lying, that he got roughly 200 BNP only votes and Cotterill got roughly 250 EFP only votes - ie these voters, voted for nobody else    Well it's obvious they didn't want to vote for the other party(if im reading this right) they had 3 choices, so they must have seen a difference.