Tag: elections

After a good night’s sleep (and a not so good day at work), time to reflect on the outcome of the election. In Central Ward the result was a win for Derique Montaut (47%) with Karen Leakey in second (29%), Steve Pipe third (13%) and the other two less than 10% each.

So a negative campaign won? Actually, I don’t think so. This ward is traditional red nest territory, but not so strong that a good local candidate could not come close, very close, as happened for one blue egg in 2004. But no matter how strong a candidate is, if incumbent councillors from the same nest seem to have no interest in their ward, it will be a struggle to break through. (The two incumbent blue nest councillors were both defectees from other nests.)

There is a monthly free news sheet, Central Outlook, distributed throughout inner Swindon. In it, all the councillors of Central, Gorse Hill & Pinehurst, Eastcott and Western Ward have column space, as do the two Swindon MPs. All use the space… except for the blue nest councillors for Central. Unlike their red nest counterpart, their piece has been noticeably lacking since one of them chose to seek re-election elsewhere. Visibility for councillors’ activities is generally low, so opportunities like this to address one’s electors should be used. For the last six months the answer to the question ‘What are the blue nest councillors in this ward doing for us?’ has been an echoing silence.

Seems I was wrong about electronic voting speeding the count. The ballots papers had all been counted for Central ward half-an-hour ago. It’s the electronic votes that are delaying the result. The online vote checking service (by which I should be able to check receipt of my vote) isn’t working either: ‘The receipt cannot be generated yet as not enough data is available.’ The wonders of modern technology…. If it’s not announced soon I’m likely to fall asleep before the declaration.

With electronic voting having been taking place since last Thursday, leaving it until the afternoon of the (final) polling day to distribute your only leaflet is a little bit too late.
It’s better than nothing though. I’ve received not a single chirp from the green nest (perhaps trying to be more ‘environmentally friendly’ than is good for their electoral prospects) nor the yellow nest (tho’ one councillor from the yellow nest told me I should have received four leaflets by last weekend).

With electronic voting at the polling stations today too, the count should be quick. Unfortunately, although conventional stubby-black-pencil-on-ballot-paper voting was also meant to be available, some polling stations weren’t ready for this when they openned.

It has now been confirmed that the online voting system does allow a spoilt ballot ‘paper’.

But with all this technology is it still possible to get it wrong?
Yes explained Mr Winchcombe [Swindon deputy returning officer]. By failing to select any candidate on screen or by voting for more than one candidate.
“But you will get a warning on screen asking if this is really what you want to do though,” he added.

It’s nice to know that the option of last resort is still available.

With Swindon being one of the trial areas for internet and telephone voting, I have this evening cast my vote online in what is otherwise Thursday’s local election. Rather surprisingly, there still seemed to be an option for delivering a spoilt ballot paper, as one could select too many candidates which, the site warned, would result in none of the votes being counted… not that I tested this functionality, so I can’t say whether it would actually have allowed this.

Having tried it once, I’ll be returning to conventional voting in future years if possible. Voting at home just doesn’t have the same sense of occasion, doesn’t have the feel of ‘doing democracy’ that going to a polling station, standing in a wooden booth and putting a cross in a box with a blunt, short stumpy pencil does.

The blue nest have finally popped something through my letterbox that tells me who their candidate is. Apparently she’s my ‘Only Local Choice’. If anything maybe too local. I’ve previously noted where the main candidates have located their nests. What’s not clear is whether the one local egg will stretch her wings much beyond the Broadgreen area. The Railway Village, Shrivenham Road, Westcott, and Rushy Platt areas are part of Central ward too.

Strange too, that, although in an area of Swindon that is graced with one of the blue nest’s In Touch websites, it’s the only one not to get a mention on their leaflet. Perhaps because it features the slightly less local Councillor Dickinson, who seems to have done a runner to West Swindon for re-election (where he’ll be even less local), and the none too local at all Councillor Darker.

It’s so nice to see so much independent thought from the candidates across Swindon in the local elections. For example, from the red nest, from Highworth to central Swindon, via Abbey Meads and Haydon Wick, compare and contrast. Just one four-or-five line paragraph of biography, then identical political statements. Are the needs of central Swindon really the same as rural Highworth? The blue nest is not much better. From Western ward through Gorsehill & Pinehurst to Penhill, all three candidates claim

I am community minded and as a Councillor will always put local residents first and be a strong voice only excepting the very best for residents – no excuses…. I have the energy, enthusiasm and drive to be a first class Councillor.

An interesting choice of words. Candidates Watton, Gallavin and Tomlinson, all committed to not giving Swindon the best: ‘a strong voice only excepting the very best for residents’. Proof-reading, what an undervalued profession. ’Tis slightly refreshing to see that their central Swindon candidate thought of something different to say. How about the yellow nest? Wow, they each have something different to say… or nothing to say at all.

The latest little glossy leaflet from the red nest fulfils komadori’s prediction for the election. In a strange reversal of political reality, it claims law-and-order to be the responsibility of the local council and waste and recycling collections to be the responsibility of national government. In a strange reversal of economic reality, it claims that ‘house conversions have continued unabated into unwanted flats’ yet of those same unwanted flats ‘The high rents have driven people into multiple-occupancy and overcrowding.’ Prices rising for an unwanted commodity…. Novel.
Most bizarre though are some of the implications about their candidate.

With over 26 years experience of community representation as a councillor I know when a community has been let down.

Would that be through personal experience of letting commun­ities down yourself? Perhaps the reason why you were unelected a few years ago?

Derique is a former Mayor with over 26 years experience as a Councillor in Swindon.
If the Tories were truly ‘In Touch’ why have they not sorted things out?

Err… and why didn’t you sort them out in your previous 26 years as a councillor, for much of which the red nest was in control?

As as a fine example of layout editing, in this glossy leaflet, below a photograph of a grimacing grinning Derique

They are happy to spend lots of your Council Tax money on glossy brochures full of cheesy smiling faces.

Someone take that pistol away quick, before they shoot themselves in the foot.

At least they’re telling me about their candidate, even if it’s not believable. So far communications from the red nest outnumber those from the blue nest four-to-one, and there hasn’t been a single chirp from the yellow nest yet.

The list of candidates in the local elections have now been published (though you have to search for your polling station by selecting ‘where’ before the site will tell you). (Actually, they’ve been published for about a week, but it’s taken me until now to work out how to get the list from the official site.) Those for central ward are an interesting bunch, honest. There’s David Cox (independent egg) who’s apparently taking the man-of-mystery approach. Listed next is Karsten Evans (green egg) whose only promise is “I can be a ‘pain in the neck’ when I need to be.” So no different from most other politicians then, for whom being a pain in the neck seems to come naturally. Other candidates are Karen Leakey (blue egg), Derique Joseph Montaut (red egg) and Steven Francis Pipe (yellow egg), all of whom, as predicted, are committed to fighting crime and anti-social behaviour, dealing with traffic congestion and protecting the green spaces in the town centre.

Whilst not the leaflet currently getting the blue nest hot under the collar, the latest glossy from the red nest is full-on negative campaigning. Like their blue nest opponents’ recent glossy, there are finally spun financial statements, with a 20% increase in Council Tax in the last four years compared with a 35% increase in central government funding over the last ten years (which equates to less than 13% over four years — rather less impressive).

And the council is, apparently, failing to clear graffiti. I must have been imagining the ongoing removal campaign by the council…. Oh, they’ll also ‘protect urban Swindon from over development.’ I presume local councillors from the red nest will be asking their government colleagues to reduce the centrally set housing density targets then? Perhaps not….