‘Labour leadership vote system is divisive and undemocratic’
THE current system of electing Welsh Labour’s leader is discredited, divisive and undemocratic, according to the leader in Wales of Britain’s biggest union.
Tomorrow the party holds a special conference to decide whether to elect a new leader by a variation of the current electoral college system – under which ordinary members have only one-third of the votes, with the others divided between elected politicians and trade unions and other bodies affiliated to the party – or on the basis of “one member, one vote” (OMOV).
In an article for the online magazine labourlist.org, Peter Hughes, the Wales Secretary of Unite, writes: “Since the Welsh Assembly’s birth in 1999, Welsh Labour has been in power. We have had three First Ministers, all Labour and all elected through the electoral college system.
“During every leadership election the system has been the subject of considerable debate, often obscuring the contributions of the various candidates during the election.
“This can’t be right; the system of election can’t be the central focus.
“What our party and the general public need to hear and consider are the various leadership qualities and policy proposals of those seeking election.
“Ahead of the special conference this weekend we must, as a Labour movement, make an honest assessment of how the existing system has performed and also how it is perceived. If I were a school teacher I think it would be charitable to give it a D-.”
Mr Hughes said it was Unite’s view that in an era of mass party membership, continued use of the electoral college system in Wales was simply outdated: “We must recognise that it is a discredited system that our party across the UK has jettisoned.
“It is complicated, divisive and – at its core – fundamentally undemocratic,” he said.
The union leader added: “Unite’s decision to support OMOV is unlikely to be supported by all the other affiliated trade unions in Wales.
“Indeed, it may be a decision that makes us unpopular with some in our movement, but I am confident that we are on the right side of the debate here.
“The position of the majority of trade unions at a national level is now to support OMOV, and the vast majority of Constituency Labour Parties in Wales support OMOV.
“To argue that embracing OMOV weakens the trade union voice in our party democracy is a red herring. Supporting OMOV does not in any way mean that Unite intends to step back from its involvement within the Welsh Labour Party.
“This weekend is our opportunity to finally end the internal arguments over processes and systems and concentrate on what really matters – the retention of a Labour government in Wales and the election of a Labour government in Westminster.”