Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Voter fraud discovered in St Ann's, technicalities mean the result stands.
After the recent St Ann's ward Labour party selection meeting we lost our three standing councillors. Nilgun Canver stood down, and Zena Brabazon and David Browne were deselected. In 2009 this was the site of the rather startling deselection of the illustrious Brian Haley. Considering the quorum at the Harringay Labour party meeting to select three candidates in 2010, St Ann's have an active and diligent Labour Party.
Or do they?
The three candidates selected this year in St Ann's were Barbara Blake, Peter Morton (Head of Press at the Labour Party), and a local shopkeeper.
It was remarkable in 2009 when Brian Haley was deselected but what happened here was unprecedented. All three councillors in a safe Labour ward were replaced. It now transpires that the election to select these candidates was not as straight as it should have been. Nineteen people who were both outside the ward and had joined the Labour party after the cut-off date at the end of April had joined on one day in July. Just imagine if St Ann's councillors had to be mindful of Harringay traffic concerns to be selected? Would those bollards exist? Why was this allowed to happen?
The meeting was stacked with Haringey Labour members, not necessarily from St Ann's (26 in total) but loyal to Councillor Kober and perhaps other factions. Five people from outside of the ward voted in the election, this is all it took to swing it and come May next year your vote will be nearly worthless because this is a very safe Labour ward.
There are two things that bother me about this. The obvious and wilfully ignored corruption in the candidate selection - these people WILL be elected, just because they are the Labour candidates - these meetings are important, and the apparent barring from standing of a local Labour activist, Seema Chandwani.
To be allowed to stand in a selection meeting in Haringey you must go before a panel to be judged on your suitability as a candidate. In Haringey the panel was chaired by Luke Akehurst. Apparently he thought that Ms Chandwani would bring the Labour Party into disrepute, presumably because she embarrassed them over youth services in the borough (and I bet he was one of the people clapping loudly when Ed Milliband talked about lowering the voting age this week). Luke denied us the opportunity to vote for Seema as a councillor. As a keen follower of local politics I think this was quite nasty, I would have dropped leaflets and knocked on doors for Seema, and I'm not even a member. I wonder what he made of Charles Adje whom I see he allowed to stand for selection?
The second thing that bothers me is that rules in place to protect us from vested interests taking over our representation as residents were completely ignored in this selection process. As I've said, just imagine if a bunch of angry Harringay citizens could join the Labour party and go over and deselect anyone in St Ann's who supported the gating of the Gardens? I have looked into this myself and I know it's completely against the rules. Labour central office were alerted to this but were too busy planning their conference this week to care about it. The GRA are in shock.
Labour in Haringey do not deserve our votes because they are careless with the selection process.
Next week, on Monday the 30th, the selection meetings come to Harringay and I urge all Labour Party members to attend the meeting and vote for the best candidates, not to mention keep an eye on the voting. As much criticism as I level at the local Labour Party, at the end of the day it is up to members to take an active part in the selection process.
(Edited by site admin following legal advice)
Tags for Forum Posts: election2014, labour
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by pamish on
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The first vote will be between the two women, as there always has to be at least one woman selected. Then a run-off between the remaining three. Four is minimum as there has to be #seats plus one.
I am still trying to find out who was the woman who ran against Cllr Kober in the Seven Sisters selection.
The candidates won't be present. Only Harringay resident party members on the list as at 30th April can be there to vote. Don't know if other party members can be there to observe. Expect more than six.
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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They are present to make a pitch and then excuse themselves for the vote, right? More than six? Oh alright, eight. Farcical.
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Permalink Reply by Isidoros on
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From experience, the average attendance at such Labour Party ward selection meetings in Haringey is c25-30 (not 6 or 8). In Tottenham Green there were 30 members present and I am aware that there were more than 30 in some other wards.
Even so, it would have been better if it was more - the higher the attendance the more difficult for any small clique to manipulate the result.
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Better still if the majority of that turnout were not all strangers to those who have been keeping it all going for the other 46 months. Not strangers to everyone of course, as they often have the same surnames and/or addresses as the candidates.
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Isidoros, in 2009 the Harringay selection meeting was attended by nine people, including the three eventual candiates.
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So 23 people turned up at the Harringay Ward selection meeting (Hurrah). Of the four people standing, one declared that he had to present first because he also had to go to the Stroud Green Ward meeting to stand there. This presumably went down well with those present who returned us Gina, Emina and James. I only have a problem with Gina who we've hardly seen for three years but I can't really accuse her of bed blocking if there were only four candidates. In St Ann's they initially had thirteen. Apparently we're not a popular place to stand if you're a Labour candidate in Haringey so our Lib Dems must be doing something right. It will be interesting to see how serious James is, some people may resent the fact that he worked for Claire Kober but I'm reserving my judgement. Emina comes highly recommended by a couple of people I trust.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
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For goodness sake, if you have evidence of wrong doing do something about it.
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Permalink Reply by Julie on
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Things are being done. The party is taking it very seriously and the process will be rerun. Sadly for all of us who have given time up to go through a democratic shortlisting and selection process, we will have to go through it all again.
I would like to stress that nobody at the selection meeting was expecting that nearly 20% of the participants were ineligible to take part. In all honesty I don't think even the voters concerned realised that they shouldn't have been there. Why would anybody joining a political party start by reading its rulebook? They were presumably told to turn up at a meeting and show support.
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Julie, it was a concerted effort by a specific interest group to disenfranchise St Ann's voters, forget about the poor Labour party. The reason they appeared to have gotten away with it is because it co-incided with another effort from Claire Kober's supporters, albeit hers was legal,just slightly distasteful.
It is in the Labour Party's interests to bring a prosecution to prevent this kind of thing happening in future. Whether they have the stomach for it (and I can't talk, I know) is another matter.
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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People are doing something, Michael. Checking names on public Electoral Registers both online and with trips to Haringey and Enfield Civic Centres. Using websites to search names, addresses, businesses, and companies. Evidence of apparent misconduct is sent to the Labour Party's regional and national offices.
Just to clarify, Pam, it is entirely proper for a candidate's family members to join the Labour Party and take part in selections. And some people have large families. Though of course they too must live and be on the Electoral Register at the address given.
The basic point remains the one raised by Harringay councillor David Schmitz: contamination of the local democratic process can "bring politics in general into disrepute". This is what has happened.
Incidentally, I'm told that Harringay Labour Party branch selected Gina Adamou, Emine Ibrahim and James Ryan as the Labour candidates for next May's elections. People know Gina and have mixed views about her. I've known Gina for years and have always supported her. I also know Emine and think she is an excellent new candidate.
(Tottenham Hale ward councillor)
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Permalink Reply by Old-Age-Emporium(OAE) on
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Looks like Kober wants Harringay to have one foot in South Cyprus, another in North Cyprus, and a third in Southern Ireland. But who knows? What's in a name? I'd like to have seen Nora Mulready in there again. I may have to look towards the local Opposition again, come May - if only those national AD LIBBERS would stop cluttering my inbox with their Oxfamished appeals for my vote or, better still, my money. Dammit, they're nearly as annoying as David Lammy's monthly need to tell me what orgasmic excitement he's been having for the past four weeks. [Come on UKIP, BNP, Tories. I haven't had a card from you lot for years.]
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It's just what happens when the democratic process kicks in - those with an Agenda stuff a meeting to influence results, of course, what else is likely to happen? The formerly disinterested have their moment of power, and can override the everyday 'activists'. National elections are just on a larger scale. This all reminds me so much of student politics, that the deja vu is overwhelming. My Student Union was run by the WRP...
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