THE hotly contested result of an election to Labour’s national executive could be recounted after officials named the wrong person as the winner of another party post.

Leftwinger Max Shanly was told on Saturday that he had missed out on one of two open places on Young Labour’s national committee.

Young Labour returning officer Stephen Donnelly refused a recount and would not disclose details of the result, according to Mr Shanly.

So he was shocked to hear on Wednesday evening that he had won by a 6 per cent margin.

Labour officials said the error stemmed from a “mistake when applying the gender balancing for this position.”

One of the positions is reserved for a woman, while the other is an open place.

Labour officials initially believed that because a woman, Zarah Sultana, had topped the ballot, the second place must be given the next highest-ranking woman, who was Holly Higgins.

But under party rules, Ms Sultana took the reserved place and Mr Shanly should have been awarded the open place.

The error was spotted three days after the election by eagle-eyed national executive member Ann Black.

Ms Black said yesterday that the mistake was a “technicality” rather than anything more sinister.

The error has, though, triggered calls for a manual recount of the election for Young Labour’s representative on the party’s national executive.

Right-wing candidate Jasmine Beckett defeated union-backed James Elliott by just 0.16 per cent and officials again refused a recount.

Mr Shanly said: “The overturning of the declared result makes the demand for a full manual recount of the NEC youth rep election all the more pertinent.

“If I can be declared defeated with a 6 per cent lead over the declared candidate, then I think questions must be raised over the result of the NEC youth rep election that was declared with a much smaller margin.”

Fraud allegations are among complaints being investigated by Labour peer Jan Royall.

Ms Beckett also faces claims that she asked supporters to use social media to smear Mr Elliott as an anti-semite.