Socialist Party Australia - Euro and Council elections: Victory for CWI candidates!

Last Thursday millions of European voters went to the polls in Euro and Council elections. In Ireland the Socialist Party has doubled our number of Councillors and in Britain two SP Councillors have been re-elected and a third just missed out despite getting a higher vote than last time.
Read latest reports on the Socialist Party results from Ireland and Britain...

Ireland
As counting proceeds, the Socialist Party in Ireland, a leading force in the anti-Bin Tax campaign last year, has already won four councillors in the local elections, doubling its representation in the process.

Councillor Clare Daly, imprisoned for a month last year for fighting the Bin Tax, topped the poll in Swords ward with 2771 first preference votes to rewin her seat on Fingal County Council (this represents more than a doubling of her vote since the last local elections). Together with the very creditable vote (443) of Michael O’Brien who stood in the same ward, the Socialist Party captured 20% of the vote in this area!

In Mulhuddart ward, Councillor Ruth Coppinger was elected to Fingal County Council with over 1800 votes. Together with Helen Redwood who stood in the same ward, the Socialist Party received 20% of the vote in this area as well!

Mick Murphy, a Socialist Party member who went to jail for three weeks for opposing the Bin Tax, was elected top of the poll in Tallaght ward, South Dublin Council, winning 2506 votes (17%). This is the first time the Socialist Party has had a councillor in this area and represents an excellent victory for the Party.

For the first time since its formation the Socialist Party now has a councillor outside Dublin. Mick Barry, a leading community activist, was elected top of the poll in his ward and will represent the party on Cork City Council. Mick received a fantastic 1390 votes which represented over 17% of the votes in the ward. This compares to the 4.9% he received in the same area at the time of the last local elections.

As we go to press, Lisa Maher, a Socialist Party candidate in the Dun Loghaire/Rathdown council in south-west Dublin is fighting to win the last seat in her Dundrum ward. She received 1289 first preference votes in the first round of counting.

CWI members internationally, will welcome these excellent results, and also the very good votes that other Socialist Party members got in Fingal, Dublin City, Drogheda, Limmerick, and Letterkenny.

The CWI will publish a more detailed overview of the elections as soon as we get them.

Britain
Increase in socialist vote in Coventry
By Judy Beishon, Socialist Party, England and Wales

Socialist Party councillor Dave Nellist was re-elected with the highest poll in the St Michael’s ward with 1,586 votes, and Socialist Party councillor Karen Mackay came second with 1,449 votes – also being re-elected.

Unfortunately our third Socialist Party councillor Rob Windsor was beaten on this occasion by just 16 votes by a New Labour candidate, despite getting a higher vote than when he won his position. This loss was partly due to boundary changes, high resident turnover in the ward, and the fact that Rob was in bottom place on the ballot paper. This was the first time all three SP candidates have stood for election at the same time.

Our three Socialist Party St Michael’s candidates polled significantly more than New Labour, gaining 4,236 votes compared to Labour’s 3,536. We have demonstrated once again that we have built a solid and increasing base of support. Across Coventry city the Socialist Party, standing everywhere as Socialist Alternative, gained 8,617 votes in total, with 423 in Binley Willenhall, 565 in Whoberley, 527 in Henley, 561 in Lower Stoke, and many other good results of 400 plus votes.

Elsewhere, other Socialist Party candidates gained very good results. Standing for the first time in Lincoln, Ryan Hayward got an excellent 16% (329 votes), Jess Leech in Lewisham got 13% (374 votes) and in Merseyside Netherton and Orrel seat Pete Glover got 706 votes, with Marie Savin on 537 votes and Michael Brierley on 485. We received 12% in Stoke with 312 votes and 378 votes in Newcastle Byker.

We will present full results next week.