I’m at Cowley Street, at the election count for the next President of the Liberal Democrats.
The count has just been completed and the result is as follows:
Ros Scott: 20,736 votes (72%)
Lembit Opik: 6247 votes (22%)
Chandila Fernando 1799 votes (6%)
Commenting, the new Liberal Democrat Party President, Ros Scott said:
I’m really proud to belong to a Party in which every member has a chance to vote for the person they want to run the internal management of the Party.
This campaign has given Liberal Democrats the opportunity to have a robust dialogue within the Party about the role of the President and how the Party should be run.
Our Party is a genuine grass roots movement, and the job of the President is to ensure that we stay that way – that our members and activists remain at the heart of everything we do.
Many of the problems this country faces today are a result of successive Tory and Labour Governments failing to face up to the need for strengthening international institutions, failing to regulate the financial services sector and over centralising public services.
Only the Liberal Democrats have offered an alternative to this old tired thinking and as we approach the next General Election our Party needs to rise to the challenge of demonstrating that a vote for either the Labour or Conservative Parties simply means more of the same.
I am proud to be able to play my part, alongside Nick Clegg and Vince Cable, in increasing Liberal Democrat representation at all levels of Government in all parts of the country.
Nick Clegg said:
I would like to congratulate Ros Scott on her election.
The role of President in the Liberal Democrats is a vital one for the organisation and management of the party. I know that Ros will do a fantastic job of representing the membership and upholding the wonderful tradition of internal party democracy that sets us so apart from other political parties.
Ros Scott will take up office on 1st January 2009, succeeding Simon Hughes.
A total of 60,357 ballot papers were issued and the turnout was 47.8% (+0.4% on last time). 49 ballots were spoiled.
Further details, including more comment from Nick Clegg, on the party’s website.
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28 Comments
Excellent news! Now, if only the candidates had been allowed to campaign, we might have had a higher turnout.
YAY!!!
Dissapointed that Lembut didnt get elected but Congratulations to Ros, I hope as a Party president she can take the party to new heights.
Wow, that is a clear mandate. Well done Ros and her camaign team
Congratulations to Ros Scott…a well deserved win in my eyes…
No hanging chads here. đ
A truly stunning result for Ros. 72%? Wow! This is a deserved result for an excellent campaign. I’m sure she’ll be an excellent President.
The curse of Lembit strikes again. I can’t help but feel he deserved more votes.
Evidently this wasn’t a contest between activists and armchair members. Ros’s support evidently extended far beyond conference delegates.
So that’s just 6% for Liberal Vision and 22% for Liberal Derision.
Thank God for that. I could not have continued as a member under Lembit. Well done Ros đ
Many congratulations to Ros, who I’m sure will make an excellent President.
On a lighter note – the result represents a swing of 4.3% against Lembit.
Well done to Ros and her campaign. Now can people get off Lembits back? Liam, that is a disgraceful comment. Lembit is a hard working Liberal Democrat and an instinctive Liberal. Perhaps bloggers can restrict themselves to praising Ros rather than enjoying Lembits loss.
My take on all this is that we have a very sophisticated electorate within the party. There were plenty of people on right-leaning blogs predicting a Lembit win on the basis of the contest being “Opik, who or who?”.
I’ve been struck by the number of members who were not “inside the party machinery” who still voted for Ros on the basis of her manifesto.
Pats on the back all round.
A good result, but a very disappointing turnout.
This is good news for the Party indeed. Her election begins to address our poor record on gender balance in Parliament and other structures
We now need her to use her power and influence to reduce the gender gap even more and also inject real urgency in doing something about the BME balance in Parliament and other structures
And I would also like to pay tribute to Lembit and Chandila for giving us a real choice
Congratulations to Ros.
4.45pm: Sky News shows shots of Lembit and talks about him. Only mentions Ros as an afterthought, so time to give them a lesson in reality, Ros.
What a bore. Another personality buried and more middle-managers trying to run a national political party. I despair of this party sometimes.
Still, perhaps we will see differently coloured envelopes?
Another Liberal Democrat election victory!
So are we ever going to see Chandila again?
Paul, I strongly suspect so–he pretty much admitted that he wasn’t expecting or even really hoping to win, he ran to get a point across, and to give him credit, I think he did that well, highlighting a few issues that weren’t in the other two campaigns that would be worthy of further discussion.
There is a little bit of me that suspects he was partially a spoiler for Lembit, a preferential system can sometimes benefit from an extra candidate, it certainly made the contest (and hustings) more interesting.
Neil, you say ‘bloggers’ should restrict themselves. Two points, one is that Liam isn’t, to my knowledge, a blogger: there’s no link with his name nor is he listed on Lib Dem Blogs. Thus he is a commenter on a blog, but not himself a blogger as that requires having a blog by definition (Liam, if you want help setting one up, y’know, always happy to oblige…).
Second is that I don’t like the idea of restricting anyone–I’m a liberal, damnit. I’ve heard similar comments froma number of members, and one membership secretary of my acquaintance was specifically backing Ros as the resignations expected in certain areas if Lembit won would hurt the party.
Personally, I would’ve been happy if he won, he’s a bloody good campaigner. But I’m absolutely ecstatic that Ros has won, she’s both a good campaigner and has a real handle on what the party needs from the President.
Plus she was brilliant on Any Questions last night, we need more media performers able to take the fight back and get good points across.
Yay!
Lembit has had a wretched two years, lived in the full glare of the media. His defeat is therefore perhaps not such a surprise. The fact that this is being presented as his defeat, rather than Ros Scott’s victory, reflects the desire of newseditors to re-run photos of Lembit with Sian Lloyd or Gabriella ‘in happier times’.
Can someone tell me why everyone was so pro-Ros? I voted for her, so I am not an anti. I am just curious as to why everyone was so 4 Ros.
Anon@ 1109pm.
I suspect a combination of three main factors, and I reckon most were swayed by two out of three, but not the same two each time:
1) She’s a bloody good candidate, obviously competent and switched on (as is her husband who she met through the party).
2) She ran a damn fine campaign, mobilising activists and supporters effectively through the internet with a strong grasp of the issues and understanding of what the President should be doing effectively.
3) She’s Not Lembit. A large number of people were specifically against him winning, for a variety of reasons most of which have been covered but I mostly disagree with. That she was also competent in her own right made it a lot easier for people who had this as top priority.
But I personally backed her because of 1) & 2), 3) was an added bonus–I like Lembit and think he’d have been acceptable, but not what we really needed. Added bonus of the endorsement of the person I got on with most at my first two London lib dem social events after I moved there. He went on to marry her, which was possibly the best endorsement possible IMHO.
“Can someone tell me why everyone was so pro-Ros?”
I can’t speak for anyone else, but before any of the other candidates even declared I was pro-Ros. She’s an excellent orator; her blog is well-written and full of interesting procedural stuff (and I’m a procedure geek, and think an understanding of this sort of thing is important in a president); Mark (famously) liked the candidate so much that he married her, and I trust his judgement… So by the time I actually met her, I had already formed a very positive impression, which was only reinforced by the lady herself. She’s is incredibly sharp and on the ball when she’s in the thick of a debate, and she’s very witty and personable in general conversation.
And she also gave my other verbal assurances that she wouldn’t be backwards about telling the leader and Chris Rennard if she thought they were heading off down a blind alley. From a campaign perspective this is very necessary. Nobody, not even Chris Rennard, is perfect enough to have all the answers all the time.
So basically, she’s someone with a broad and deep understanding of procedure that is easy for people to get on with, and she’s got balls and judgement. I’d already decided that she was a candidate worth supporting well before conference.
I suppose if either of the other two had been utterly stellar, I might have switched sides, but I don’t believe that either of them had all Ros’s positives, and both of them had significant negatives. So I stuck with my first choice.
Is that a helpful answer?
I hope by running in the contest it will enable other people in the future to do the same and champion causes which they passionately believe in. It has been an exciting and very illuminating experience. I hope to keep campaigning for the issues in my manifesto and wish Ros every success.
Chandila – The strength of our Party is it is truly democratic – Any member can run for any office
You were right to use the campaign to raise your profile.
We need more talented BME individuals to come out and demonstrate that there is untapped talent out there which the Party must embrace
This contest actually shows the power of bloggers and of a well organised campaign that started over 18 months ago.
Ros will no doubt hit the ground running and I am very pleased to see Lembit’s supportive words, though this is in tune with his style. He is loyal, a true liberal and a man who looks to build up people. Well done Ros and hope that you continue to wow us as much as your campaign.
I’m pleased. A bit of gender balance and a victory of excelent campaigning over name recognition.