Welsh Labour has ‘gone OMOV’ (one member one vote) for the election of its leader, after conference delegates in Cardiff voted with an overall 64.1% in favour (weighted percentages). 35.9% voted in favour of a revised ‘electoral college’ (EC) system.
The detailed voting breakdown was as follows:
- Party units: 43.35% OMOV and 6.75% EC
- Affiliates: 20.85% OMOV and 29.15%
Based on a 50:50 share between CLPs (constituency Labour parties) and affiliates, this equates to 87% supporting OMOV in party units, slightly more than campaigners hoped.
Congratulations to Welsh Labour members and to National Executive Committee member Darren Williams, who was the key coordinator of an OMOV campaign saw a campaign group of the execs of nearly every CLP is wales meeting regularly for almost a year, joined by Welsh Assembly Members who support OMOV.
The Unite union had announced its support for OMOV some time ago, with GMB, Unison and USDAW ranged against it.
The vote means that left-winger Mark Drakeford is now considered the favourite to become Welsh Labour’s new leader after Carwyn Jones steps down.
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Great! The class struggle is depressing and exhausting but news like this helps to buoy the spirits. Thank you Skwawkbox for providing a useful news service, unlike the mainstream, ruling class owned media which serves the rich.
At last we will have a supportive Socialist Government in Wales as Carwyn does something else with his time but simply being different from Jeremy! Great news!!!
Good news
Great news – left wing democratic socialism now has a chance in Wales and hopefully an end to bourgeois socialist top down leaders! Proud of our comrades there, now let’s all make history!
If any of our MPs are in any doubt that the Labour Party is coming home – to its members – they need to think again and those who don’t like it, please sod off.
Now the dirty campaign will commence. Carwyn Jones and his henchmen will be lining up with smears and leaks to the press.
Yes. Let’s see if they use antisemitism smears, even though that’s been done to death.
hopefully this will shut the door on May saying….. look at Wales!
Good to have OMOV at last, although it makes little difference on this occasion, Mark Drakeford was always a shoo in, head and shoulders above everybody else.
Really good news, although rumoured that Carwyn will try to give all clear to new motorway through Newport levels some of the most important naturall habitats before he goes
Welsh Labour have been so right wing and Tory-lite, it is amazing they are still supported at all.
As a Welsh Labour member, I am relieved to hear this. I spent a day phoning people to canvass for Julie for deputy leader and she won the popular vote by a landslide, but was not elected because the electoral college chose the losing candidate. That was a day in my life I felt was totally wasted. Never again.
Omov for the leadership has been voted in Wales because of a long a determined and excellent campaign by the membership through the immensely hard working CLP secretaries and many others. However, I am less sure of the victory of Mark Drakeford now. When he announced his candidacy, he said he was the “candidate of no change”, and worse, considered himself a one term caretaker.
Other candidates still have time to come forward, and they are the ones who, representing real change, are struggling to get on the ballot. Now they have OMOV the imperative for real change to the constipated politics of Cardiff is most likely to happen through grassroots-lead change. Mark is a lovely person, a real socialist, very intelligent and with a lot of experience, but I fear will disappoint as an agent of change.