Whilst the world focused on yesterday's cuts budget, Unison activists were waiting for the result of the election for our General Secretary.
Dave Prentis has been elected for a third term as Unison's General Secretary. Dave got 67% of the vote (down 8%), Roger Bannister got 20% of the vote (up 3%) and first time candidate Paul Holmes got 13% (up 5.5% compared with my tally five years ago).
The turnout at 14.6% was a couple of points down on the already disappointing turnout last time.
The votes were as follows;
Voters eligible to cast a vote: 1,487,759
Votes cast: 217,027
Valid votes cast: 216,116
Dave Prentis: 145,351
Roger Bannister: 42,651
Paul Holmes: 28,114
Turnout 14.6%
Whilst the usual suspects may claim this as a great triumph for our General Secretary (http://unisonactive.blogspot.com/2010/06/dave-prentis-re-elected-as-unison-gs.html) I think that the reduced support for the incumbent (in spite of a more unified campaign for him at national and regional level) together with the growth of the combined "left" vote from a quarter to a third of votes cast indicates both the need for a more tolerant and inclusive approach in the here and now and that the next election is not in the gift of the "machine".
Certainly a fellow blogger (http://www.unionfutures.blogspot.com/) deserves full credit for a key role in organising to secure the best ever showing for a first time left candidate in a General Secretary election in our Union (http://unionfutures.blogspot.com/2010/06/general-secretary-election-results-and.html).
Now let's unite to fight the cuts (and expect the same unifying approach from our leadership)!
Sent using BlackBerry® from Orange
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5 comments:
Hi Jon
Thanks for the report. On reflection do you think the UL would have been better off backing Roger?
Its clear that the idea that the Left candidate with the most nominations should be the one that everyone supports doesn't translate into the most votes. As has been proved now in the last few GE elections
Stuff to think about I think
cheers
P
So Serwotka's re election result and his 55% must have been a disaster ??
yet Union Futures said Serwotkas victory was a great victory and a new mandate
So what is it
pretty amazing result for a new candidate with a relatively low profile till now - congrats to all concerned!
P,
A candidate standing in their fifth consecutive election will always have some name recognition advantage. Dorothy makes that point precisely. The real question is what we do next time...
Anon,
Serwotka's re-election was indeed marvellous. Dave Prentis has also clearly won this election. I am sure that he will reflect rather more on the meaning of all aspects of the result than will some of his most enthusiastic followers.
Jon says "Now let's unite to fight the cuts"
Roger says "As I predicted, the result for the United Left demonstrates once again the lack of support for their programme and tactics.
"In particular, the failure in the United Left to put forward a clear position on disaffiliation from the Labour Party meant they suffered in this ballot.
"If they do not re-consider their position as a result of this election then the only victors will be the right wing at next year's national executive elections."
hmm
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