Motorists, Equity & Unity Party
Opinion Column Archives
No. 31 The May 3rd Elections - 2007 (UK)
The Motorists, Equity & Unity Party submitted a candidate for the recent May 2007 Elections and, due to the intricacies of the process our candidates nomination paper was rejected on the grounds of one of the Assentors (8 required) having assented to another candidates nomination, thereby leaving our candidate with an invalid application. By the time this difficulty was rectified the application was submitted 15 minutes late. The local newspaper, Eastbourne Gazette published names of candidates standing at the forthcoming election (May 3rd), and our candidate was on that list. We proceeded accordingly and printed our election material and distributed around the ward.
We received a telephone call from one of the electors in the said ward informing us that our party/candidate was not listed on the Postal Ballot Forms. We got in touch with the local newspaper to try and ascertain how they came to publish our candidates name if our nomination had not been accepted.
On the day of the election (May 3rd) the secretary of the party went to the Polling Booth to register his vote and, just as the informant had told the secretary, our party/candidate was not included on the voting forms. There was a visit to our premises on the night before handing in our nomination paper and it would appear that this visit had something to do with the eventual invalidation of our candidates application. The burglar alarm had been tripped (cannot be reset) and it seems that the visit was to establish the names of our candidates Assentors. We are fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan at the present time, apparently to spread democracy across the Middle East. Unfortunately, nearer to home this policy appears to be faltering. It seems highly unlikely that our candidate (the first candidate standing for the M.E. & U. Party) would have been elected, yet it would appear that such a possibility was sufficient to mobilise the D.T.B. ! [Dirty Tricks Brigade !]
We did approach the Eastbourne Gazette to ask that an explanation be printed in the following weeks paper to explain why, after having distributed our election material that we were not listed on the ballot papers. Unfortunately, to date, no such explanation was printed in that paper. We felt it necessary that some comment should be made in order that those that may have wished to vote for our candidate were made aware of the circumstances leading to our elimination from the contest !
We received a telephone call from one of the electors in the said ward informing us that our party/candidate was not listed on the Postal Ballot Forms. We got in touch with the local newspaper to try and ascertain how they came to publish our candidates name if our nomination had not been accepted.
On the day of the election (May 3rd) the secretary of the party went to the Polling Booth to register his vote and, just as the informant had told the secretary, our party/candidate was not included on the voting forms. There was a visit to our premises on the night before handing in our nomination paper and it would appear that this visit had something to do with the eventual invalidation of our candidates application. The burglar alarm had been tripped (cannot be reset) and it seems that the visit was to establish the names of our candidates Assentors. We are fighting a war in Iraq and Afghanistan at the present time, apparently to spread democracy across the Middle East. Unfortunately, nearer to home this policy appears to be faltering. It seems highly unlikely that our candidate (the first candidate standing for the M.E. & U. Party) would have been elected, yet it would appear that such a possibility was sufficient to mobilise the D.T.B. ! [Dirty Tricks Brigade !]
We did approach the Eastbourne Gazette to ask that an explanation be printed in the following weeks paper to explain why, after having distributed our election material that we were not listed on the ballot papers. Unfortunately, to date, no such explanation was printed in that paper. We felt it necessary that some comment should be made in order that those that may have wished to vote for our candidate were made aware of the circumstances leading to our elimination from the contest !
Mr Peter Sayers, secretary
M.E. & U. Party. RPP No.1976586
M.E. & U. Party. RPP No.1976586
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