Labour leadership: One in ten ballots 'didn't count'
Monday, 27 September 2010 12:00 AM
By Peter Wozniak
As many as 10% of the ballots for the Labour leadership election were classed as 'spoiled' and did not count towards the final results, it has emerged.
Of the 257,339 votes cast, reportedly 36,105 were spoiled, and therefore had no influence on the election which saw Ed Miliband pip his brother David to the post by just 1.3%.
The reason for such a large proportion of spoiled ballots appears to have derived from the electoral college assigned to union members and affiliates, counting for a third of the electoral college used for Labour leadership elections.
On these ballots, voters had to tick a box confirming that they were Labour party supporters.
It appears that large numbers of affiliates saw their votes wasted because they did not tick the box as instructed.
A Labour spokesman declared that "the ballot papers carried clear and prominent instructions that people's votes would not be counted if they did not do this".
It is unlikely that the result of the ballot will be contested, but the discrepancy adds to the questions surrounding the election process, which sees MPs and MEPs, party members and dues-paying union members given equal say as blocs in an electoral college.
Ed Miliband was behind his brother David in the first rounds of voting - it was only support from the affiliates' bloc as Ed Balls' supporters' second preference that saw Ed Miliband secure his narrow victory.
The result has led to accusations (particularly by the Conservatives) that Ed Miliband effectively 'owes' his position to union support.
Such suggestions have been strongly denied by the new leader, saying he is "his own man".
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