Perhaps Labour Party members – the few who remain – should be grateful for small mercies: after the NEC election left-wing Grassroots Voice candidates took five of the nine CLP seats.
It means Keir Starmer’s ‘Stalinist Right’ (apparently) faction has been denied a chance to consolidate its power over the party; he will continue to face opposition to his more extreme right-wing policies in the party’s ruling committee.
But do these results really matter, when they come amid allegations of vote-rigging?
I have never heard of an electoral system where the register of eligible voters can be amended after the vote has taken place according to voters' behaviour during the contest.
Truly groundbreaking innovation from Keir Starmer's democratic and post-factional Labour Party.
— Ronan Burtenshaw (@ronanburtenshaw) November 13, 2020
Are the @UKLabour Party trying to get done for fraud? What the hell is happening? Tell us the results of ALL votes counted, not just the ones you like.
— James Foster #GrassrootsVoice (@JamesEFoster) November 13, 2020
The totalitarianism we are seeing at UK Labour HQ this last few weeks is significantly worse than under the Tony Blair years.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) November 13, 2020
This votes farce makes Starmer’s Labour look
1. Incompetent
2. Corrupt— Tom London (@TomLondon6) November 13, 2020
The claim is that Starmer’s leadership has been disregarding votes by people who subsequently quit their membership of the Labour Party in disgust at the undemocratic decision to suspend Jeremy Corbyn for no reason at all.
BREAKING: Labour have run out of money for the electric meter- due to members resigning- so the shredders won’t work. They hope to get results to you ASAP.
— James Foster #GrassrootsVoice (@JamesEFoster) November 13, 2020
UK Labour HQ now resembles a tin pot dictatorship
• Suspended a twice elected leader for nothing
• Suspending CLP Officers for exercising free speech
• Scurrying through NEC ballots to strike of undesirablesAppalling descent into dictatorship & vastly worse than Blair years
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) November 13, 2020
And it seems this claim may have validity. The number of votes counted in this election is said to be around 117,000 – 27 per cent of the membership, according to the most recent figures we have. Last time, 68 per cent of the membership voted.
That’s a huge difference.
27% turnout in the NEC Elections. Last time NEC election turnout was 68%.
The fundamental lesson of this election is that Labour as a living breathing organ is in terminal decline.
Not necessarily a bad thing if you are seeking to pursue a non transformative neoliberal agenda.
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) November 13, 2020
Hopefully someone pops along and either confirms or corrects my maths here but it looks like just
117,000 votes
were cast/accepted for the Labour NEC elections. 3 possible explanations
1. Lots have left
2. Low turnout
3. Lots purged(all three is the likely answer)
— Tory Fibs (@ToryFibs) November 13, 2020
It is entirely possible that the 117k figure represents 68 per cent of the current membership, after the party haemmorrhaged members following Starmer’s election as leader and his immediate choice to betray those who voted for him by ignoring his 10 pledges and turning the party’s direction sharply to the right.
But if Starmer’s people have been binning votes from people who were members before they quit in disgust, then it seems they have acted unconstitutionally by removing votes that should have counted; these people were members when they voted and had every right to vote at the time.
1. So, apparently, people who resigned before they voted in the NEC elections are having their votes pulled.
But how do we know they are applying the correct criteria?
If it's as close a call as I am hearing it might be, all those who have both voted and resigned need to know— CrémantCommunarde#ActivistLawyer ⚖️ 🌻 ✋ (@0Calamity) November 13, 2020
3. Either way, this smells of the kind of internal shenanigans worthy of the Kremlin.
— CrémantCommunarde#ActivistLawyer ⚖️ 🌻 ✋ (@0Calamity) November 13, 2020
Fortunately for democracy in the UK, we have an organisation dedicated to ensuring that elections are carried out in a free, fair and legal way.
So here’s the question:
Should the Electoral Commission be called in to investigate this election?
The @ElectoralCommUK need to examine what is happening in Labour today, regardless of the result. You can’t be counting votes, and disqualifying people, up until moments before declaring the result.
I’ve never heard anything like it in U.K. politics.
— Aaron Bastani (@AaronBastani) November 13, 2020
And if so:
Should the result of the NEC election – as currently reported – be ignored until the Electoral Commission is able to confirm (or deny) it?
Have YOU donated to my crowdfunding appeal, raising funds to fight false libel claims by TV celebrities who should know better? These court cases cost a lot of money so every penny will help ensure that wealth doesn’t beat justice.
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