IT could be the longest day today – for the candidates in borough council and parish council elections in Warrington.
Polling is over – but the count is only taking place today and the results are not expected until around 6pm.
A total of 158 candidates were contesting the 58 seats on the borough council – and there were more fighting for parish council seats and also for the Police and Crime Commissioner’s post. All will have to wait all day to find out if they have won or lost.
But there have been complaints from residents in various parts of the borough that election information has not been delivered to them.
One resident, Dr Paul Speake, wrote to Warrington Borough Council as follows:
“I am writing to ask who I am voting for and what policies and where if anywhere I can find out about anyone who is standing in this election. I have received NO information through the door or any other place. What is going on and how can we be expected to put a cross on a ballot paper if we have not been able to come to an informed judgement about a person on that ballot paper?”
Dr Speake later told Warrington-Worldwide: “My point is, how many other people are there in Warrington like me – totally in the dark as to who will be their port of call as of result time?
“It makes a shambles of the democratic process that the parties treat their electorate with disdain and then go on to criticise us for not voting when we do not know who or what we are voting for.”
The longest day – for election candidates!
55 Comments
5 Comments
It doesn’t say much for the candidates in your area if they have not bothered communicating with the people they expect to vote for them!
Where do you live?
You are quite right Gary, there is an air of overly confident (misplaced?) satisfaction hanging over many politicians participating in these elections.
Yes, voted pretty much blind really as we had absolutely NO information about any of the candidates – didn’t even realise, until we got there, that we were voting for Police Commissioner as well. If the candidates were so apathetic as to not campaign then really they don’t deserve to be voted in as it shows lack of respect for the people they supposedly wish to represent.
Guess the reality is that in some…maybe most areas, people vote for a party irrespective of who the candidate is……and of course there is no minimum number of votes to get elected….just more than the nearest opponent.
Paul, none of us will really be able to unpick the reasons influencing the way people vote because the system is democratically flawed, and will remain so until the voters are allowed to have a tangible say on what type of conservative, labour, lib/dem etc party they want; instead of party activists making that decision and foisting it on the electorate. Add to that the “first past the post…and to hell with the also rans” system of voting and the flaws continue to mount.