The Full Results Thanks to greendragon for the this
MAY, Peter Nicholas Independent 671 (E)
GRIFFITHS, Fran Welsh Labour / Llafur Cymru 533
THOMAS, Janet Mary Welsh Liberal Democrats - Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru 215
WAKELING, Ashley The Green Party - Plaid Werdd 179
DWAN, Pat Independents @ Swansea 158
ALLARD, Josh Welsh Conservative Party Candidate 154
FITTER, Rhydian Plaid Cymru - The Party of Wales 104
JOB, Ronnie Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition 31
Not a very good result for the other parties but the LibDems in particular saw their vote collapse.
Well not entirely, because victor Peter May had stood under the LibDem banner last time.
I have only included the two parties to make it easier to read for a full list see here
| Nick Davies | Labour Party / Plaid Lafur | 1302 |
| John Bayliss | Labour Party / Plaid Lafur | 1207 |
| Neil Ronconi-Woollard | Labour Party / Plaid Lafur | 1161 |
| Pearleen Sangha | Labour Party / Plaid Lafur | 1099 |
| Peter Nicholas May | Liberal Democrat / Democrat Rhyddfrydol | 1089 |
| Stuart James Rice | Liberal Democrat / Democrat Rhyddfrydol | 975 |
| Janet Mary Thomas | Liberal Democrat / Democrat Rhyddfrydol | 812 |
| Jayne Woodman | Liberal Democrat / Democrat Rhyddfrydol | 782 |
| Name / Enw | Party / Plaid | Votes / Pleidleisiau |
|---|---|---|
| Peter Nicholas May | Welsh Liberal Democrats - Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru | 1828 |
| Stuart James Rice | Welsh Liberal Democrats - Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru | 1706 |
| Jayne Woodman | Welsh Liberal Democrats - Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru | 1495 |
| Janet Mary Thomas | Welsh Liberal Democrats - Democratiaid Rhyddfrydol Cymru | 1488 |
| Sybil Edith Crouch | Labour Party - Plaid Lafur | 817 |
| Andrew Daniel Connell | Labour Party - Plaid Lafur | 792 |
| Ian William James Ross | Labour Party - Plaid Lafur | 765 |
| Derek James | Labour Party - Plaid Lafur | 729 |
With me so far? Good.
For Mr May had been the LibDem Candidate in Swansea West (which Uplands is part of) in the 2010 General Election and came dam close to puling of an historic victory.
| General Election 2010: Swansea West[6][7] | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour Co-op | Geraint Davies | 12,335 | 34.7 | -7.2 | |
| Liberal Democrat | Peter May | 11,831 | 33.2 | +4.3 | |
| Conservative | René Kinzett[8] | 7,407 | 20.8 | +4.8 | |
| Plaid Cymru | Harri Roberts | 1,437 | 4.0 | -2.5 | |
| BNP | Alan Bateman | 910 | 2.6 | N/A | |
| UKIP | Timothy Jenkins | 716 | 2.0 | +0.2 | |
| Green | Keith Ross | 404 | 1.1 | -1.1 | |
| Independent | Ian McCloy | 374 | 1.1 | N/A | |
| TUSC | Rob Williams | 179 | 0.5 | N/A | |
| Majority | 504 | 1.4 | |||
| Turnout | 35,593 | 58.0 | +1.3 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | -5.7 | |||
| General Election 2005: Swansea West | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Votes | % | ±% | |
| Labour | Alan Williams | 13,833 | 41.8 | -6.9 | |
| Liberal Democrat | René Kinzett | 9,564 | 28.9 | +12.3 | |
| Conservative | Mohammed Abdel-Haq | 5,285 | 16.0 | -3.0 | |
| Plaid Cymru | Harri Roberts | 2,150 | 6.5 | -4.1 | |
| Green | Martyn Shrewsbury | 738 | 2.2 | +0.2 | |
| UKIP | Martyn Ford | 609 | 1.8 | -0.2 | |
| Veritas | Yvonne Holley | 401 | 1.2 | N/A | |
| Socialist Alternative | Robert Williams | 288 | 0.9 | N/A | |
| Legalise Cannabis | Steve Pank | 218 | 0.7 | N/A | |
| Majority | 4,269 | 12.9 | |||
| Turnout | 33,086 | 57.1 | +1.3 | ||
| Labour hold | Swing | -9.6 | |||
It must be very confusing in Swansea West for the electorate.
But it bears the question
How much do our elected representatives believe in the policies of the party under which banner they stand. Or is a merely a way of getting elected?
Still congratulations to Cllr May he clearly has local following and the people of Uplamds may (no pun intended) got themselves a decent councillor
I wonder if the LibDems in the next council election will run a full list or put up just three candidates hoping Cllr May comes back into the fold after the election?
I wonder if the LibDems in the next council election will run a full list or put up just three candidates hoping Cllr May comes back into the fold after the election?
2 comments:
Cheers for that acknowledgement Glyn. Its open to question how 'independent' the victor (Peter May) actually is and we wonder, now he's been elected, if a return to the lib dem fold for him can be entirely ruled out? Though as we've no information on the reasons for his departure from the lib dems in the first place we have to say this is purely speculation on our part. Whatever Peter May was by all accounts a popular hardworking councillor when in office, so his victory can in part probably be attributed to his still having a sizeable personal following in the ward.
You'll also see from our take on the bye election that we raise the important and pressing issue of progressive parties in Wales fighting one another in elections, and the possible consequences of this. We are of course not asking any of the left or left of centre parties in Wales to compromise themselves, and we at greendragon are certainly in no position to tell Plaid Cymru or the Greens or others how they should relate to one another at election time.
But it goes without saying that it doesnt make much sense for Wales mosr progressive parties to keep taking votes off one another in the way they periodically do, and it surely isnt wrong to suggest to them they might want to come to some kind of electoral 'arrangement' to avoid this in future ? At least at a local level anyway, tho the greendragon would like to see it extended to the elections to the Senedd in 2016 too.
But what's clear is that its high time the left in Wales got its act together at election time and stopped allowing arguably artificial divisions to make it so easy at election times for the likes of welsh labour - and heaven forbid UkIP.
Another interesting county council by-election will be held in Carmarthenshire next month in Trelech. This election also has a Liberal candidate. The last election was fought by Liberal, Independent and Plaid Cymru representatives. The same three parties will again be putting up candidates. Trelech is in the west of the county and is one of seven rural wards in Carmarthenshire that are in the Carmarthen West & South Pembrokeshire parliamentary seat. (The six urban Carmarthen seats were all won by Plaid Cymru in the 2012 election.) Currently six of the seats are held by independents and Plaid Cymru hold the seventh. Two of the seats held by the Independents had majorities of 5 and 47 over Plaid Cymru at the last general County Council election. Cneifiwr has an account of the runners and riders this time round. What will be interesting will be whether Plaid Cymru can translate its second place into a win following the retirement of the Independent candidaite who represented the ward for half a century. It will be interesting to see what happens to the Liberal vote following the Swansea vote and the Kent parliamentary by election where the Liberals fell to less than one percent of the vote. By- elections are rare in Carmarthenshire. The last two elections took place in similar rural wards in Cenarth and Llanegwad about three years ago. Again both seats had been represented by long standing Independent candidates. The by-elections returned Plaid candiates who were returned at the next full county elections in 2012. The Liberals stood in three of these western seats in 2012 polling 17 votes in Whitland, one hundred and thirty three votes in Trelech (coming third) and 273 votes in St Clears again coming bottom of the poll. With Labour only being able to find two candidates in these seven seats and polling over 100 fewer votes than the Liberals the result could give us some clues as to how things may pan out in a tight general election race. The result might also tell us something about what is happening in Independent and Plaid Cymru contested seats in rural west Wales.
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