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Election results

Posted: Sat 09 May, 2015 12:51 pm
by SloopJohnB
Even I am amazed by the local election results. There are 52 seats at East Herts Council and all are now filled with Conservatives. There are 16 Hertford Town Council seats and 15 are Conservative and 1 Labour owing to the fact that the Tories only put up 3 candidates in Sele so there had to be at least one non-Tory elected.

This is not a a good democratic model at District level. There is no opposition; does anyone really think that a councillor is going to go against the wishes of the ruling executive. Who do you think is going to stand up for the ordinary voter and make their voice heard. In most cases the majority was quite overwhelming so even if the 'did not vote' people voted it would not make much difference because some of their votes might also be cast over the winning candidate.

I read the ongoing debates on Ware On-Line on Town, District and MP elections and quite animated, interesting and forthright they were. Quite refreshing because there was no such thing going on here. Apathy rules OK. Made no difference of course because the same result happened in Ware.

I have admit that I know fewer and fewer of the people who were elected in Hertford. Not to say they are not good people with the best interests of the community at heart. I do not know the answer to all this. Is this part of the world so good, so well off, so safe, so pleasant with none of life's problems busting in that there is nothing to fight against. I said here before that I had personal reasons for not standing and perhaps this was a bit of a blessing as I don't know how I would have coped had I been elected as a lone Independent with a stroppy point of view. But then again looking at the voting patterns perhaps I would not have won either. Nothing more to say apart from a deep sigh.

Re: Election results

Posted: Mon 11 May, 2015 10:26 am
by beebopb
The electoral system is completely for district and town council elections is completely braindead. A single ward elects multiple candidates with each elector getting multiple votes. In Bengeo, for example, three seats are contested and three Conservatives are returned despite the fact that between them they receive less than 2/3 of the vote.

Even if you support the representative model of FPTP it makes no sense for each elector to represented by 3 councillors - either those 3 should be elected proportionally within the ward, or the ward should be subdivided such that each area returns only one councillor.

Whether the current system gets you a result you like or not it's pretty difficult to argue that this system is democratic.

Re: Election results

Posted: Mon 11 May, 2015 10:30 am
by The Masked Woler
You are being very unfair to Peter Boyle who is, once again, the lone non Conservative on HTC.

Although, as you say, there were only three Conservatives, he beat one of them and pushed the others close, so would still have been elected had there been four.

He was significantly ahead of his party colleagues and I understand his vote was up, so his voters are clearly happy with him.

Re: Election results

Posted: Mon 11 May, 2015 10:35 am
by The Masked Woler
beebopb wrote: ...........In Bengeo, for example, three seats are contested and three Conservatives are returned despite the fact that between them they receive less than 2/3 of the vote..........
At least they got to vote, in Ware Chadwell (and eight other wards in EH) there was no election at all.

Unfortunately results like those on Thurs make it harder and harder to get people involved in local politics.