What's the Big Secret?

In the aftermath of Labour's Scottish leadership election - awkward questions, if perfectly reasonable questions continue to be asked - about why the whole affair was such a terrible mess.

As regular readers will be know person who came second in the ballot of individual  Scottish Labour party members - Johann Lamont - won the contest due to a bizarre weighted voting system - in which some votes and weightings are much more equal than others.

And even though this is awfully embarrassing - and not in the least fair or socialist - it's a fact of life and you would expect the Scottish Labour party to defend its corner by publishing the results in full - warts and all.

As the UK Labour party did over Ed Miliband's election - when he pipped his big brother Dave to the post with the help of trade union votes - and as other parties have down recently including the Conservatives, Lib Dems and SNP.

But so far at least Labour have remain tight lipped - all they have said is that over 300,000 ballot papers were sent out - without explaining the actual numbers. 

So we are left with the ridiculous state of affairs that people are being kept in the dark - including Labour party members - the exact opposite of openness and transparency.

Now Labour's electoral college makes about as much sense as one of the Mad Hatter's Tea Parties - but it's their system and they should be able to come out and explain how it works.

So how many ballot papers were sent out - and returned - in each section? 

Because that's the only way of assessing the turnout in the Scottish contest - which if it folllowed the same pattern as Ed Miliband's election - would mean widely fluctuating levels of participation.

So in the case of MSPs and MPs - how many ballot papers were sent out and how many were returned?

100 or so appears to be the figure - but this leads on to the next question.

In the case of individual Scottish Labour party members - how many ballot papers were sent out and returned?

Many years ago Labour claimed 20,000 members in Scotland - so the figure is likely to be well down on that now. 

The turnout is important because it will highlight the fact that the votes of only 100 or so MSPs and MPs - are worth the votes of 20,000 Labour party members.

Which seems a tad unfair.

Even more unfair is the trade union section - where around 300,000 ballot papers were sent out - so say Labour and the trade unions anyway - but exactly how many were returned? 

The turnout in Ed Miliband's UK election was less than 10% - but let's give Scottish Labour a generous 10% turnout in the trade union section - for argument's sake.

The upshot is that around 30,000 trade union members have the same voting strength as 100 MSPs and MPs - and the same voting strength as the entire Scottish party membership of around 20,000.

Yet the turnout in the trade union section is clearly unrepresentative - because it is based on a low turnout (10%) yet carries the same weighted voting strength (1/3rd) - as the other two parts of the electoral college.

And to add insult to injury - the votes cast in the trade union section can belong to non-Labour party members - or to people who are able to vote twice in large numbers.

Since there's nothing to stop individuals from voting in the party members section - and again in the trade union section for a second time.

Vote early, vote often - as they used to say - but it's a shocker of a system - open to abuse and completely undemocratic - like something that's been dreamed up in North Korea not the UK.

I suspect that's why the Labour party has so far resisted publishing the results in full - yet surely there are decent people inside the party committed to democracy - and not  a dreary old-fashioned Tammany Hall-style of politics.

If that's what Labour still stands for in Scotland - then it's time to stand up and be counted.

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