Leanne scrapes through: Labour and Mule Scrape the barrel.

The Wasting Mule and Labour are both cockahoop  over  the news that Plaid Cymru leader Leanne Wood came embarrassingly close to defeat in her bid to win top place on her party’s South Wales Central list of candidates for next year’s National Assembly election.the leaking of the figures is a significant embarrassment for Plaid Cymru, who wanted to keep them secret and still officially refuse to confirm them.

The Mile is right however that 

What adds to Plaid’s disenchantment is that former Labour special adviser David Taylor was able to tweet accurate details of how the count was going before the result was announced.
He correctly tweeted that Mr McEvoy was intially ahead, subsequently also tweeting the final result before party members knew what it was.

The question of how David Taylor who has more than one time taken exceptional glee in attacking Plaid obtained the figuers.

After first preference votes were counted in a selection contest, she was 10 votes behind Cardiff councillor Neil McEvoy.

Ms Wood had to rely on votes transferred from the third-placed candidate, party chair Dafydd Trystan Davies, to secure a 10-vote victory over Mr McEvoy, who until 2012 was the deputy leader of Cardiff council.

It is understood that around 300 Plaid members took part in the two hustings events where votes were cast.

So how did Leanne fail to easily top the ballot?

Maybe as a Labour source claimed 

That Plaid Cymru’s leader can’t even command a majority of her own members is desperately embarrassing stuff and exposes the deep mistrust Leanne Wood faces from her own party.
“In recent weeks she’s been publicly criticised by a former Plaid leader (Lord Elis-Thomas), failed to deliver any gains in the general election and has seen Plaid slip into fourth place behind Ukip in Wales.
“At this rate, many will be forgiven for wondering whether Leanne Wood will lead Plaid Cymru in to next year’s election.”

However there doesn't seem to be any real signs of disquiet except from Dafydd Elis Thomas  who lets face this if he was a SNP member would criticise Nicola Sturgeon for not wining every seat  in Scotland and it looks like desperate stuff from a party concerned about thier rivals leader popularity rankings 

Or could it be that most of those voting came from Niel McEvoy's stronghold of Cardiff?

Possibly.  Mr Mcevoy may be controversial but he has also built a reputation as formidable campaigner and in May saw one of the biggest increases in the Plaid vote in Wales in Cardiff West

General Election 2015: Cardiff West[5][6][7]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Labour	Kevin Brennan	17,803	40.7	-0.6
	Conservative	James Taghdissian	11,014	25.2	-4.5
	Plaid Cymru	Neil McEvoy	6,096	13.9	+6.9
	UKIP	Brian Morris	4,923	11.2	+8.5
	Liberal Democrat	Cadan ap Tomos	2,069	4.7	-12.8
	Green	Ken Barker	1,704	3.9	+2.1
	TUSC	Helen Jones	183	0.4	+0.4
Majority			6,789	15.5	+3.9
Turnout				65.6	+0.4
	Labour hold		Swing

Or maybe it was simply Plaid members simply assumed that Leanne would top the ballot and sought to ensure that their second favorite candidate either Mr Mcevoy or Dafydd Trystan Davies got second place by initially switching their first vote to one of them.

Embarrassing as it it may be, it may not do Ms Wood any real harm to remind her she leads a democratic party there does not sem to be evidence of hubris in her at the moment but as we have sen with Tony Blair and David Cameron popularity can go to ones head

It is said when a Roman General achieved a great military victory he would parade into Rome in an elaborate procession called a triumph. The story goes that a slave would ride on the chariot going "Respica te, hominem te memento" ("Look behind you, remember you are only a man") and "Memento mori" ("Remember (that you are) mortal").

Maybe all politicians achieving popularity among the electorate should be reminded of this.