This in from the Isle of Wight branch of The Green Party. Ed
Members of the Isle of Wight Green Party have announced they will be selecting their candidate for the 2015 General Election campaign in an ‘Open Primary’, believed to be the first on the Island.
Because most of the seats for the Westminster parliament are considered ‘safe’, small cliques of party officials choose more MPs than voters do. The concept behind an open primary is that democracy starts with the selection of the candidate, rather than on polling day.
Islanders asked to vote for candidate
Each of the prospective candidates will have to present their case for representing the people of the Isle of Wight at a public meeting in September.
The individual who wins the most support at the primary would be expected to go forward as the official Green Party candidate for the Isle of Wight in May 2015.
As the aim is to choose someone electable, candidates have to appeal to a wide range of the Island population, rather than just local party members. All prospective candidates must be members of the Green Party of England and Wales before the date of the primary.
Isle of Wight Green Party spokesperson Daniel James said:
“We aim to unite every Islander who doesn’t want a Tory/UKIP coalition running the country in 2015.
“In both the 2009 and 2014 European elections, more Islanders voted Green than Labour or Liberal Democrat. We represent the real alternative because all four of these other parties believe in globalisation, privatisation, and economic growth at any cost.
“With this Open Primary, we intended to find the best possible General Election candidate and demonstrate that our commitment to open democracy begins from the ground up.”
