How to fix an election, Conservative Party style

Full credit to ConservativeHome for reporting in-depth on the gory details of how the Conservative Party’s powers-that-be fixed party selections so as to protect their MEPs from their members (the latter generally being much more Euro-sceptic than the former, which could have resulted in widespread deselections).

Highlights include:

1. Conservative members were banned from voting sitting MEPs off the top of their lists; instead, decisions on this were taken by regional candidates committees. (By contrast, the Liberal Democrats put MEPs into the same all-member postal ballots as all the other candidates, with members being free to rank them in any order they wished.)

2. Official hustings meetings were banned. (By contrast, the Liberal Democrats organised official hustings meetings and also gave all MEPs and other candidates the chance to take part in an online hustings.)

3. MEPs and candidates were banned from attending party events in the three months running up to close of the postal ballot. (Yes, really.) (By contrast, the Liberal Democrats actively encouraged MEPs and other candidates to attend party events, including asking local parties to advertise their events via www.flocktogether.org.uk so that they could easily find out about them.)

4. MEPs and candidates had to use a pro forma CV for their official selection leaflet. (By contrast, the Liberal Democrats allowed people to layout their leaflets however they liked.)

5. The Returning Officer instructed MEPs and candidates on what they should say when asked questions about their political views:

When ConservativeHome.com asked candidates a series of questions about their political beliefs some candidates were initially instructed not to answer.  CCHQ then relented but John Maples MP, Head of the Candidates Department [and also Returning Officer], issued suggested answers for all candidates to use.  Several candidates replied to us with the exact answers that they had been supplied with and undoubtedly won brownie points from the powers-that-be as a result.

(The Returning Officers in the Liberal Democrats were not party staff and no instructions on how to answer questions from members were issued.)

6. Turnout figures were kept secret. (They were published by the Liberal Democrats.)

And it goes on and on.

What does this all say about the actual commitment to democracy in some of the senior ranks of the Conservative Party? It looks like a case of “Democracy? Only if it’ll give us the result we want”.