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Saturday, August 24, 2013

Perversion- peterwn says:

'So it seems that some Young Nats have joined the Labour Party to try and get a say in Labour’s leadership. I am probably an old ‘stick in the mud’ but while it sounds a cute thing to do, I am not at all sure it is something Young Nats as an organisation should advocate or something the National Party at large should condone or even acquiesce.* It is interfering in the democratic process of a registered political party.
Unions, parties, etc resist such tactics by a adopting ‘wedding cake democracy’ that is members appoint delegates who in turn appoint the governing body, thus effectively neutralising maverick voting. Labour is giving ordinary members (as distinct from union affiliates) direct votes in the leadership selection, which is vulnerable to interference unless robust ‘primaries’ systems as in USA are in place.'
*emphasis mine
This is interesting. National Party supporters, trying to pervert democracy.

Who'd have thought?


4 comments:

Ray said...

I am unaware that there is any law or even convention that you can't belong to more than one party
After all the Labour party give two votes to all Affiliated Union members who are also party members

Ray said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
darkhorse said...

the national party is far more vulnerable to having its branches taken over by infiltrators = most Nat branches that i have seen are so poorly populated that they are ripe for the picking - just a few enthusaistic anarchists beocming members in each branch and the party would be taken over form the inside - I did advocate down your way a while back RG that the greens should also become national party members - then they would much more impact on politics than joining the Greens or Labour. I reckon Bill would love t have a few more memebrs in the Nats in Southland - particularly some under 70 - that would be really refreshing for him and the party

robertguyton said...

Will I be able to vote for the Nat party leader if I take out a membership, DH?
Guess not. Democracy sticks in the Tory craw like...a stick.