“Carwyn’s emphatic win”
Carwyn's pitch has been demonstrated - at least within the Labour Party
THE quote above isn’t from Team Carwyn. It comes from his defeated rival, Huw Lewis.
And there can be little doubt about its veracity. The Bridgend AM managed not only to win at the first round (in other words he got more than 50% of the vote), he also won in each of the three sections of Labour’s electoral college. Many people – this site included – predicted a Carwyn win. Few predicted such a conclusive victory.
We’ve already posted the rough figures, but for those interested in the precise shares they were:
- Carwyn Jones AM 51.97%
- Edwina Hart AM 29.19%;
- Huw Lewis AM 18.8%.
And for those who want the exact breakdown by college section, they are:
| Round One | Edwina Hart | Carwyn Jones | Huw Lewis | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elected Members | 9.4340 | 16.9811 | 6.9182 | 33.3333 |
| Individual Members | 8.4427 | 17.9046 | 6.9860 | 33.3333 |
| Affiliated Organisations | 11.3088 | 17.0893 | 4.9352 | 33.3333 |
| TOTAL | 29.1854 | 51.9751 | 18.8395 | 100% |
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When will the actual breakdown of the voting figures be released Adam?
Those figures look like a clear case for jettisoning the affiliated organizations: they have less democratic merit than the other two, and there’s a significant skew in their voting.
James D,
Why do you suggest that individual political levy paying trade unionists have less democratic legitimacy?
I would agree if the unionist that payed the political levy was asked?
Well every trade unionist has to opt in or out at the point they join.
The real point though is that the Trades Unions section is the WLP equivalent of the open primary. Nearly half a million levy paying members of affiliated Trades Unions in Wales were balloted (at substantial cost) and their votes were cast in proportion (i.e. no block votes). I myself treated my own Union’s political committee recommendation to vote for Edwina with the contempt I felt it deserved (I’m a Unite member).
I think it’s a pity that so few of the hundreds of thousands of trade unionists who got posted a ballot paper bothered to return it, but I fail to comprehend James D’s suggestion that the affiliate section under current rules is undemocratic.
Well thats has to be a first. I was a member of USDAW both in the late 1980s and between 2002-05, and I paid the political levy I (I dont recall there being a option for individual unionists to opt out) and I voted both at TUC and Labour conferences with being consulted. For that matter I do not even recall voting for anything except for a union rep ,and we had to force the local area rep to call a ballot. I was a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union when I worked for Safeway in the US and they were good at getting pay rises for shop workers, which is why Tesco and Walmart have kept them out. On the whole the general view in UFCWU was that USDAW was a “Uncle Tom” union.
Why should just a few elected members have over 33% ? It should be 1 member 1 vote.