So, all the postal ballots have been entered, the buttons have been pressed, the candidates informed. I can now give you, for the first time, all the results of the Liberal Youth Elections in one place.
First of all, though, I will take advantage of my position as Returning Officer to thank all the candidates for standing. There were a good number of them too, with many of the positions being contested. You normally have to use significant powers of persuasion to get candidates for treasurer of anything – yet Liberal Youth had three.
The lively campaign and the move to an easy-to-use online voting system has also increased turnout significantly. I have blotted out the frustrating hours when I couldn’t get the Opavote system to accept the data, but that was more my fault than its, and I know exactly what to tell future Returning Officers to do. Other than that, it was very easy for me to set up and, I understand, for the voters to use.
Liberal Youth have won many new friends this year with its GoldGuard campaigning initiative and its constant EastLY presence. It can look forward with confidence to the undoubted challenges of next year. During this Executive’s term of office, which lasts 15 months, the first major election will take place in which 16 and 17 year olds can vote, the Scottish Independence referendum.
So, without further ado, here is the whole Liberal Youth team which takes office on 1 July.
Chair: Sarah Harding
Vice Chair: Hannah Thompson
Campaigns Officer: Robin Rea
Communications Officer: Steve Haynes
Membership Development Officer: Matt Downey
Finance Officer: James King and Robin McGhee (just wait till they see the RO’s expense account. The wine bill alone….)
Events Officer: Conor McKenzie
Policy Officer: Morgan Griffith-David
International Officer: Ab Brightman
Policy Committee: John Ashton, Euan Davidson, Conor McKenzie, Tim Oliver
International Committee: Hannah Bettsworth, Lucy Browett, Katie Wetherall, Maria Wilder
Non Portfolio Officers: Andrew Emmerson and Linden Parker
Conference Committee: David Evans and Linden Parker plus 2 vacancies
England Convener: Stuart Wheatcroft
English Council Representative: Matthew Holden plus 6 vacancies
London Chair: Craig O’Donnell and Syed Imam
NW Regional Chair: Daniel Lewis
Western Counties Regional Chair: Joshua Godfrey
East of England Chair: Kevin McNamara
West Midlands Chair: Ellis Palmer
Yorkshire & Humber Chair: Lance Idiabor-Moses
Devon & Cornwall Chair: Alexander Whattam
East Midlands Chair: Tom Polak
South East Chair: Tallulah Frankland
South Central Chair: Vacant
North East Chair: Vacant
You can keep up with Liberal Youth and their activities on their website, on their blog, The Libertine and follow them on Twitter.
* Caron Lindsay is Editor of Liberal Democrat Voice and blogs at Caron's Musings
14 Comments
“Chair: Sarah Harding”
The curse of Southport strikes again! 🙂
well done all 🙂
Congratulations to the new team. I look forward to seeing you all for some training, campaigning and socialising here in Oxfordshire soon.
What now happens to those positions which are now vacant?
When do the youth-elect take office?
Congratulations to all. Sarah – the latest heir to Mark Glover & Phil Jones 🙂
So how many people voted in these elections?
Tony Greaves
Tony, around 5 times more than voted a couple of years ago.
Dave Page 1st July
Dave: That’s for the LY Exec to decide.
Good luck guys and well done on innovating the voting system
Tony – more people than voted for you 😉
Well done all, a good result!
Fascinating that no-one wants to reveal the number who voted. Is this a democratic organisation or what?
“Tony – more people than voted for you ”
The last time I stood in an election for a Young Liberal officer I got (from distant memory) about 250 votes. More than that?
In the last election in which I stood (last year) I got 564 votes.
(Won them both).
Tony
Unfortunately I never voted. I planned to but I had other things on my mind. I think the main put off towards voting is the sheer number of positions and candidates.
Perhaps we should just elect the chair and the chair appoints the other positions.
Any chance of getting the full breakdown of the results round by round. Also any chance of getting the full committee results.