“Does this mean that there will need to be a by-election for his council seat?”
Yes it certainly does; however, this seat will go to Labour without question under our very much flawed electoral system for Local Government.
Since there is just one Council Seat up for grabs in this By-Election, there is every chance that all political parties will field candidates, even the Ratepayers ….Oops “NPT independents”, and perhaps the BNP.
Councillors are elected on the First Past the Post system, this is perfectly fine when there are just two parties contesting the seat(s) in a given ward, but when you have a menagerie of parties running for just one seat, more people vote against the winning Councillors than for them.
Attempts were made back in June 2002 with the publishing of the Sunderland Commission on Local Authority elections in Wales, which proposed amongst other things the introduction of Single Transferable Votes (STV); however our own Welsh Assembly Government chose to ignore these recommendations. More recently, Mr Peter Black tried to introduce (unsuccessfully) a Legislative Competency Order (LCO) in the Assembly which would give the Assembly the power to change what voting system is used for Local Authority Elections. This was voted against, mainly by Labour and Plaid Assembly Members.
We now have the situation with in Neath Port Talbot CBC, Labour has 58% of the seats with just 49% of the votes cast. A similarly situation exists in Bridgend CBC, where Labour has control of the Council with just 42% of the votes cast.
Don't be too sure about Labour being guaranteed a clean sweep of Neath North. We have not seriously contested the ward, even though we have often been told there is much support for us in central Neath. The fact that part of Neath North has been identified as the 72nd most deprived LSOA (Lower Super Output Area) in the whole of Wales, according to figures I have just seen from SWWIFT, does not mean that the ward as a whole is in Labour's pocket. Certainly the aforementioned P.Black indicated some months ago that it is a credible target for us.
I couldn't disagree with the rest of your remarks.
"Don't be too sure about Labour being guaranteed a clean sweep of Neath North..."
Well that all depends on how many other parties come out of the woodwork and decide to get ten names to put up a candidate.
Remember the situation in Maesteg West this May, seven candidates for two seats, the opposition vote was split (although lib dems came a credible 3rd and 4th).
One of the "independent" (ex-labour) candidates didn't have the decency to turn up at the count.
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8 comments:
Thank Frank, no wonder Labour hate me.
I've got enough problems getting dirty looks from Plaid in Maesteg.
Gary "dabs" Lewis
Bridgend Lib Dems
Really interested to see who replaces him as the Leader of NPTCBC.
Does this mean that there will need to be a by-election for his council seat?
In fact, what ward does he currently represent?
Yes, we believe European Parliament rules now mean that Vaughan will have to give up his Neath North seat if he is elected to Europe.
Re: Anon 29/10/08 15:13
“Does this mean that there will need to be a by-election for his council seat?”
Yes it certainly does; however, this seat will go to Labour without question under our very much flawed electoral system for Local Government.
Since there is just one Council Seat up for grabs in this By-Election, there is every chance that all political parties will field candidates, even the Ratepayers ….Oops “NPT independents”, and perhaps the BNP.
Councillors are elected on the First Past the Post system, this is perfectly fine when there are just two parties contesting the seat(s) in a given ward, but when you have a menagerie of parties running for just one seat, more people vote against the winning Councillors than for them.
Attempts were made back in June 2002 with the publishing of the Sunderland Commission on Local Authority elections in Wales, which proposed amongst other things the introduction of Single Transferable Votes (STV); however our own Welsh Assembly Government chose to ignore these recommendations. More recently, Mr Peter Black tried to introduce (unsuccessfully) a Legislative Competency Order (LCO) in the Assembly which would give the Assembly the power to change what voting system is used for Local Authority Elections. This was voted against, mainly by Labour and Plaid Assembly Members.
We now have the situation with in Neath Port Talbot CBC, Labour has 58% of the seats with just 49% of the votes cast. A similarly situation exists in Bridgend CBC, where Labour has control of the Council with just 42% of the votes cast.
Don't be too sure about Labour being guaranteed a clean sweep of Neath North. We have not seriously contested the ward, even though we have often been told there is much support for us in central Neath. The fact that part of Neath North has been identified as the 72nd most deprived LSOA (Lower Super Output Area) in the whole of Wales, according to figures I have just seen from SWWIFT, does not mean that the ward as a whole is in Labour's pocket. Certainly the aforementioned P.Black indicated some months ago that it is a credible target for us.
I couldn't disagree with the rest of your remarks.
"Don't be too sure about Labour being guaranteed a clean sweep of Neath North..."
Well that all depends on how many other parties come out of the woodwork and decide to get ten names to put up a candidate.
Remember the situation in Maesteg West this May, seven candidates for two seats, the opposition vote was split (although lib dems came a credible 3rd and 4th).
One of the "independent" (ex-labour) candidates didn't have the decency to turn up at the count.
I agree. Neath North is prime territory for us and as such we should fight it in the true Lib Dem By-election spectacular fashion.
Having lost a seat in Cilfynydd, and in Merthr already this year..I wouldnt have high hopes of taking a seat in rock solid Labour territory!
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