CF Elections

For the past four months or so Conservative Future, the 'youth' wing of our Party, have been going through an elections process to decide who will form the new National Executive Committee. Given the Conservatives are now in power, these roles are not unimportant.

Today the ballot closed. The results were as follows:

Chairman - Ben Howlett

Deputy Chairman (Membership) - Clare Hilley

Deputy Chairman (Political) - Alexandra Swann

Appointed Officer - James Deighton

As I voted for all four of them I am delighted that they were successful in their campaigns, however the number of ballots returned for the contest left me staggered.

Take the Chairmanship; Ben Howlett gained 113 votes. Craig Cox, the second-placed candidate, got 60. That's 173 votes. Put more contextually, that's 173 votes out of an alleged CF membership of 20,000.

20,000 members - 173 votes

Let's have a look at another of the positions. James Deighton gained 72 votes. Patrick Sullivan, the second-placed candidate, got 70. Now I voted for James Deighton. If I had switched my vote, that would have meant an instant tie between the two...and they say that the Unions had too much power in the Labour Leadership contest!

That so few people were able to vote in this election is a travesty. Running an election over the University holidays automatically stopped 1,000s of members from voting. Added to that, there were huge issues with missing or incomplete data, with little or no responsibility seemingly being taken by CCHQ. I for one had to push extremely hard for my ballot, with several e-mails and phone calls before it came through last Thursday (the final day of posting to hit today's 12 noon deadline).

I am sure Ben will have many constraints on his time in his new position. One priority, though, must be to address these issues. Promising to run further elections in the Spring will solve the University problem, but a membership without valid membership data is no basis upon which to build a strong campaigning force. Best start updating Merlin...