The vote among Labour NEC (National Executive Committee) members to select the new General Secretary will now be by ‘exhaustive ballot’ rather than ‘first past the post’ (FPTP). Accounts vary as to whether this will represent a change to precedent or simply that an exhaustive ballot was accommodated within standard procedure but with only two candidates in the ballot in previous years, there was no discernible, practical difference.
In any event, the news constitutes a change to the previous insistence by several NEC members that the new selection would be by FPTP even if several candidates make it to the shortlist.
That shortlist, which will be decided by the NEC officers’ group, could of course still consist of only two candidates, depending on which candidates pursue their applications that far.
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Rules changed to suit who?
Exhaustive ballot is obviously more democraric but it sounds a little bit like a bananas republic when you change the rules as you go… Labour left should do better!
I don’t think this is changing the rules. The rule book merely says “on the recommendation of the NEC”, and I think the NEC is entitled to decide how to go about that itself on each occasion. Even if it should break with previous tradition.