It has to be said that the Liberal Youth count took place under rather trying circumstances. High humidity, combined with the notoriously airless quality of the boardroom at Cowley Street, made the task of counting ballot papers somewhat less than entirely attractive. But needs must, and with a new Executive Committee due to take up their posts just thirty-five hours after the scheduled start of the count, delay wasn't really an option.
The Chair election was closely fought, with three of the five candidates capturing most of the first preferences as follows;
Matthew Folker - 48 votes
Richard Heinrich/Phil Jarvest - 41 votes
Adam Parsons - 11 votes
Martin Shapland - 58 votes
Richard Wilson - 5 votes
Reopen nominations - 11 votes
One curiosity was the final ballot paper, across which was scrawled 'BNP'. One hopes that this was intended to be post-ironic, although that might be being a mite generous...
At this stage, the technically correct procedure would have been to eliminate Messrs Parsons, Wilson and RON, as pointed out by Theo Butt Philip. However, in order to simplify the process in the eyes of those present, I transferred them separately, a point that was published via Twitter. The net result was;
Matthew Folker - 52 votes
Richard Heinrich/Phil Jarvest - 46 votes
Martin Shapland - 70 votes
Non-transferable - 6 votes
So, it was goodbye to Sheffield's 'dynamic duo'. It was, given the split, always unlikely to produce a come from behind victory for Matt Folker but in the event, their transfers only served to widen the margin between the final pair, the final result was;
Matthew Folker - 67 votes
Martin Shapland - 96 votes
Non-transferable - 11 votes
Accordingly, Martin Shapland was duly declared to be the 2010/11 Chair of Liberal Youth.
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