At the start of last week, Lib Dem Voice emailed the members of our private forum (open to all Lib Dem members) inviting them to take part in a survey, conducted via Liberty Research, asking a number of questions about the current state of British politics, especially as they affect the Lib Dems. Many thanks to the 181 of you who completed it.
Today we look at the race to become the next president of the Liberal Democrats. LDV asked: Three candidates are standing for the presidency of the Liberal Democrats: Chandila Fernando, Lembit Opik MP, and Baroness Ros Scott. Who do you intend to vote for?
Here’s what you told us:
Chandila Fernando – 3%
Lembit Opik 10%
Ros Scott – 61%
I don’t know yet, but will definitely vote 23%
I won’t be voting – 3%
There is a pretty consistent pattern emerging from the LDV members’ surveys, as this is the third time we have asked for voting intentions in a survey (albeit with different options): at the beginning of September, 65% said they’d vote for Ros, 20% for Lembit; after the party conference, this became 57% and 12% respectively. And now, with the names of all three candidates confirmed and the race officially underway, Ros has a commanding lead over both Lembit and Chandila.
Of course, we have no way of knowing how representative the LDV sample of party members is. It could be that Lembit’s higher national profile will offset the advantage Ros has gained by starting her campaign over a year ago. Equally, of course, this will be one of the rare opportunities for party members to have the choice to elect a woman to a senior role within the Lib Dems.
* You can catch up on the result of all previous LDV members’ surveys by clicking here.
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7 Comments
3% for Fernando? Looks like the revolution is going to have to wait…
I’d be interested to see what other people’s reasons given for not voting were.
I was polled and said i had not decided -because I genuinely havent decided. My inclination is to vote Fernando – mainly because the other two candidates see to spend most of their time talking about how hard they work and why they deserve the job rather than getting to the nub of what needs to be done. I also confess to thinking a bright young man with passion and ideas might be exactly what we need right now.
But i am genuinely waiting to see them in the flesh before I vote.
In any event, whilst I think it is an interesting exercise to have undertaken, a sample of 181 self-confssed obsessives like myself is not really that representative.
Stephen Tall.
You say..”Equally, of course, this will be one of the rare opportunities for party members to have the choice to elect a woman to a senior role within the Lib Dems.”
I would say that this is also an opportunity to have the choice to elect some one from the ethnic minorities to a senior role. We do at least have some excellent women in high profile roles…Lynn featherstone, Julia Goldsworthy, Susan Kramer, SArah Teather, Jenny Willott …All of whom do an excellent job. But every single face in the Shadow Cabinet is white.
I am not suggesting that anyone casts their vote based on the ethnicity of a candidate. Far from it.
But I think if you feel a candidates gender is note-worthy in your editorial so is their ethnicity – thats where the Liberal Democrats lack of representation shows up most clearly right now.
Angela: We have already had an ethnic minority President of the party – Navnit Dholakia, 2000-2004.
Thanks Terry – but I was kind of talking about where we are in 2008 and wondering why Stephen had decided to single out the gender opportunity in isolation.
And worse news for Lembit. I received all three promotional emails from the candidates yesterday. However, Lembit’s email (only) was automatically sorted by Yahoo mail into the spam box!