Sunday 8 May 2011

AV: not the end of the line in Hackney

Of the 149,606 people eligible to vote in Hackney, 30,969 voted for the Alternative Vote - about 20% of the entire electorate of Hackney. (Hackney Citizen report here said that Hackney had the highest yes vote in Britain and the FT pointed out that Hackney was one of only 10 areas across the whole country that voted in favour of AV. It was also one of only four London Boroughs that came out in support of AV: Lambeth, Hackney, Islington and Camden.)

Unfortunately it is not possible to see how the vote broke down across the borough's two constituencies but more people in Hackney support AV than their individual MPs - Meg Hillier in Hackney South won 23,888 votes in 2010 while Diane Abbott won 25,553.

The support for a change was high but the one Hackney South candidate who focused almost entirely on electoral reform in the last election only won 95 votes.

Denny De La Haye's campaign website 'Get a Vote' outlined his plan to create an online voting system that would allow Hackney voters to direct his votes in parliament.

Meanwhile Meg Hillier, the victorious MP for Hackney South did not support the Yes campaign. The question is whether the issue will die away in Hackney as it is expected to do elsewhere?

3 comments:

  1. As I way of a correction I understand Meg did support a Yes vote in the end.

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  2. I don't think that message got very far. Perhaps she should have tried a little harder / at all.

    http://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2011/05/why-east-londoners-should-vote-a-guide-to-the-av-referendum/

    https://hackneysouth.wordpress.com/2011/04/26/av-what-it-means-for-hackney-south-and-where-meg-hillier-stands/

    Or do you mean she supported it after the Hackney vote had been counted?

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  3. Hi Philip, thanks for the comment, it would be interesting to know which way she went in the end. And Denny thanks for the links - I hadn't seen Hackney South and Shoreditch politics blog before. I'll add it to the blog roll here.

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