THE ruling body of Action for Independence (AFI) have confirmed the withdrawal of all its candidates for the Holyrood election and their intention to de-register as a political party, leaving them free to continue to campaign for independence outwith Electoral Commission control.

AFI leader Dave Thompson said they had been putting Scotland before the party with their “Max the Yes” strategy – which had now been adopted by Alex Salmond’s Alba Party – and if they had decided to stand, “we would be hypocrites” for going against all they had promoted.

Their national executive committee also confirmed AFI would de-register with the Electoral Commission to allow them more campaigning freedom.

“Given we are no longer standing in the elections, there’s no need for us to be registered as a political party … there’s a lot of regulation with that,” he said.

“But also, and this is really important, it gives us more flexibility for the future. The de-registration will go through and we are continuing as an independence campaigning group, and we’ll meet after the election and have a conference in July or thereabouts with all our members to decide just where AFI goes at that time.”

He said by then, AFI would know the election results and could take one of four options: continue campaigning as an indy organisation; re-register as a political party; apply to become non-party campaigners; or, if a referendum is in the offing, apply to become a “permitted participant” allowing them to spend up to £150,000 and gives them certain rights.

“What we’re doing is clearing the decks to give us flexibility for the future,” said Thompson.

He addressed claims of “a lot of discontent” within AFI’s membership, saying while there was some unhappiness, 99% of the party were in agreement with their commitment to Alba.

“What I would say is that there was a bit of disappointment that it wasn’t possible to get any of the AFI candidates slotted into places on the Alba list, but apart from that we want Alba to succeed,” he said.