Sponsored by
MP vote ends in farce
The battle to name Wigan's Labour candidate for the next election has ended in farce.
The meeting to choose a replacement for Neil Turner turned into a shambles when officials realised the correct procedure for the postal vote had not been followed.
The town will now make political history by selecting the new candidate – for one of the safest Labour seats in the country – with its first ever postal vote for ALL members.
More than 65 members, many already angry at the decision to impose an all-women shortlist on the constituency, spent more than four hours listening to the last-six hopefuls at the official selection meeting at the weekend.
But when the moment came to vote, they were left stunned as red-faced Labour officials admitted: "The vote can't go ahead."
At the last minute officials discovered that postal votes from more than 30 members who were unable to attend, had not included a "warrant"
guaranteeing that the vote was being cast by an actual Labour member – a requirement of Labour's national constitution.
This now means that the official candidate will be declared on February 3 after the postal vote of all 250 members is counted.
During Saturday's meeting, former Immigration and Asylum Minister Barbara Roche impressed many members with a particularly stirring oration, but the embarrassing mistake could now hand victory to Metro councillor and the sole local candidate Susan Loudon.
The all-postal vote will now bring in a majority of members who hadn't attended – and they may well side with Coun Loudon because they are already familiar with her name and work across Wigan.
Wigan Labour declined to comment, but a spokesman for the North West Regional party said: "Following Saturday's hustings, Wigan CLP has agreed to go to a postal ballot of all eligible members."
One disgruntled Labour member who attended, said: "It was an absolute shambles, it really was.
"There were 33 postal votes returned from people who couldn't make it because of ill health or whatever reason.
"We went through the motions and had four and half hours of listening to the candidates and they were all excellent.
"Just as we were getting ready to walk up and collect our voting papers, they announced that the postal votes didn't have inside a slip of paper for the members to sign as verification, so they couldn't continue.
"We were told it was an administrative error from Region and there was nothing that could be done about it."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Wigan
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 12 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
