Peter Kenyon

Labour Party ends postal ballots for fast-track candidate selections

All remaining Labour Party prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) selections will be decided by those constituency labour party members able to attend a hustings meeting. There will be no postal ballots from now on, and this decision includes the selections already underway in Stoke Central, and Halesown and Rowley Regis.

Quite why this membership entitlement to participate has been stripped away is a bit of a mystery. An official note is awaited.

There is no guarantee that even a vote at a hustings will be continued after the General Election is called, even though it was agreed at this week's national executive committee that no candidates should be imposed whatever the circumstances of a vacancy.

Inside that envelope

Oooo..raffle tickets, Labour Today, covering letter and a 2nd class pre-paid envelope  err...where's the ballot paper? Aagh....err covering letter is headed "Our opportunity to shape the Labour Party's future 4th para ..The NEC....no, no no..has just appointed a new General Secretary ......NEC ballot paper enclosed? Nope, raffle tickets, Labour Today, covering letter and 2nd class pre-paid envelope.

Aagh, sooo silly.....turn over the covering letter the ballot paper is attached.

Should I use a cross or a tick?  Doesn't say!

What about the candidates? Covering letter pointers? Err, no. Ballot ballot paper references? Err, no. 

Aagh..Labour Today cover - no, its not a TV set in Gordon's living room - it says NEC Ballot 08 use your vote candidate details inside (8pt, maybe)

Page 2 - nope, Page 3 - welcome signed Harriet Harman, Page 4...Page 5...Page 15...NEC Candidate information

First task if elected get agreed format for future postal ballots that meets minimum standards for the conduct of such elections - ballot paper(s), candidate book, sae.

If the Treasurer has failed to factor in enough money to pay for OMOV ballots, then we can all draw our own conclusions.

Postal ballots and hidden intentions

The first comrade I bumped into after getting back from holiday late Saturday told me very apologetically he had junked the Labour Party mailout, which included the NEC ballot paper. The envelope design is telling. By coincidence another set of ballot papers arrived this morning from Unite. Which body really wants its member to vote? Shouldn't there be a code to govern the conduct of postal ballots by political parties? A new role for the Electoral Commission, perhaps.