PCC ELECTIONS: 'No-one votes' at Newport polling station in Bettws, Newport

12:58pm Friday 16th November 2012 in News Photograph of the Author By Martin Wade

PCC ELECTIONS: 'No-one votes' at Newport polling station PCC ELECTIONS: 'No-one votes' at Newport polling station

UPDATE: 1.56pm

The Newport polling stattion where no-one voted yesterday is reported to be Malpas Cricket Club in Bettws.

 

UPDATE: 12.55pm

 

NO-ONE voted at a Newport polling station yesterday in elections that have been branded a 'comedy of errors'.

Newport City Council could not confirm where the station was.

The council press office is reported to have fielded calls from The Guardian, Sky News and the Huffington Post this morning as news of what could be the UK's least-visited polling station emerged.

As counting continues across Gwent, the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) has blasted the UK Government’s handling of its flagship Police Commissioners. Reports are circulating that one un-named polling station in Newport recording a ‘zero turnout’ and a 4% turn-out in Caldicot.

Jenny Watson, Chairwoman of the Electoral Commission, said: "The low turnout at the Police and Crime Commissioner elections is a concern for everyone who cares about democracy.

"These were new elections taking place at an unfamiliar time of year, which is why we have made clear at every stage that it would be important to engage effectively with voters.

Comments(14)

rhinestine says...
3:04pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Hmmmm, busy I expect, was it giro day or something??

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DavidMclean says...
3:07pm Fri 16 Nov 12

It is our democratic right to withhold our vote as much as to use our vote.

The Police Commissioner elections have been a farce from the start. Plus, for such a position, I don't believe people appreciate that candidates are coming at this from a party political standpoint. Too many candidates are flying their party flags.

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wilkolima says...
4:31pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Newport - Chartist city! Our forefathers fought for the right to vote.

Newport - Charity shop city! Why vote?

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Dee-Gee says...
4:37pm Fri 16 Nov 12

This is the first time in my adult life that I haven't voted. I will not place a vote to put a party political candidate into a position that has no business existing. Here's to zero votes in every station next time round.

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james jackson says...
4:40pm Fri 16 Nov 12

David, You're right, but it is a lot more responsible to go along to the polling booth and spoil your ballot paper.
That way, one is not one of the "lazy, stay-at-home-couldn'
t care-less people, and it's always illuminating to see what people write on the ballot papers too!
On a serious note, the PCC election was indeed a farce. Nobody knew who are what, they were voting for. There was nothing wrong with the previous set-up (though not perfect) and the best bit of all, is that Labour didn't get its foot in another political door in Gwent! (Because, of course this election WAS political).

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papa says...
4:48pm Fri 16 Nov 12

rhinestine wrote:
Hmmmm, busy I expect, was it giro day or something??
I know your right about this, you know what the people in Malpas and Blaen-y-Pant are like.
Glad it was't the Bettws one at St David Lewis church.

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Dixie Smith says...
10:50pm Fri 16 Nov 12

Please don't assume everyone living on Bettws are busy getting their giros!

We all work or are in university in my household and we all voted at St David Lewis Church.

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D Taylor says...
12:08am Sat 17 Nov 12

I understand that there were special circumstances applying in this case. First it was the first time that Malpas Cricket Club had been used as a polling station. Second it was opened for a new housing estate which is not finished and so the number of people entitled to vote there was very low. Don't blame local people for a farce of an election brewed up in London.

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papa says...
12:13am Sat 17 Nov 12

Well the people in Bettws know that a Giro is a device for measuring or maintaining orientation, based on the principles of angular momentum although some headdick (did I get that right) don't know how to spell the word correctly, its GYRO!

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jimmysmith says...
3:44pm Sat 17 Nov 12

the majority of joe public are waking up these meaningless jobs for the boys and the added increase to the community charge its costing us all .thats why the majority of us cant be bothered to partake in this farce

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Dee-Gee says...
11:57pm Sat 17 Nov 12

james jackson wrote:
David, You're right, but it is a lot more responsible to go along to the polling booth and spoil your ballot paper.
That way, one is not one of the "lazy, stay-at-home-couldn'

t care-less people, and it's always illuminating to see what people write on the ballot papers too!
On a serious note, the PCC election was indeed a farce. Nobody knew who are what, they were voting for. There was nothing wrong with the previous set-up (though not perfect) and the best bit of all, is that Labour didn't get its foot in another political door in Gwent! (Because, of course this election WAS political).
Normally I would agree with you james jackson - particularly in the elections our ancestors fought and died for us to participate in - but my thought on this little ego-trip was, "I'm not going to dignify that with a response"

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Katie Re-Registered says...
2:30am Sun 18 Nov 12

It's not who votes that counts; it's who counts the votes. Joseph Stalin.

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Katie Re-Registered says...
2:50am Sun 18 Nov 12

"Normally I would agree with you james jackson - particularly in the elections our ancestors fought and died for us to participate in..."

Actually, where Britain is concerned, the impact of the population's historical fight for the vote and the actual historical reasons for the population getting it have arguably little or no relation.

From a cursory study of 19th and 20th century British politics, I note that each Reform Bill which had the practical effect of enlarging the franchise happened - e.g. 1832, 1866, 1918 - occurred as a result of pragmatic, politically strategic reasons as opposed to any acknowledgement of those in power of the morality of extending the vote for democratic reasons. In each instance, the reason behind the extension of the vote seems to have come from more accurately the advancement of the aims of a privileged socio-economic political class than from that of the masses. The 1832 enlargement of the electorate was motivated by the new capitalist elite, the 1866 Reform Bill was a political game played by the Tories to outmanouvere the Whigs, although it might be argued that the 1918 extension of the franchise occured through panic on the part of the ruling classes at the 'Red Scare' of the Bolshevik revolutions across Russia, Central and Eastern Europe in the wake of the dislocation caused by WW1. Yup, we've got Lenin and Trotsky to thank for that as opposed to the Chartists. Unfortunately, Chartism petered out and died in the 1850s as a result of an amelioration in economic circumstances which had very little, necessarily, to do with any abstract principle of democratic fair play.

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Katie Re-Registered says...
2:52am Sun 18 Nov 12

i.e. all down to political expediency rather than a moral belief that every individual has a right to choose their own destiny.

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