Marek braced for political battle

Dr Marek could face another battle to retain his seat

Deputy Presiding Officer of the Welsh Assembly, John Marek, has vowed to fight a reselection battle to represent Labour at next year's election.

The Wrexham AM has been forced to seek renomination from people in his party in order to avoid an inquiry into his conduct.

John by nature is a maverick and the problem with maverick's is they are ineffective

Mike Jeffreys T&G

Last month, a disciplinary hearing was due to hear complaints from Labour councillors in Wrexham that Dr Marek had brought the party into disrepute by criticising authority decisions.

Whether or not the politician will get through the political process without seeking reselection will be decided by the local Labour branches in his constituency.

The results of the ballot will be made public on Tuesday evening.

Mike Jeffreys from the Transport and General Workers Union (T&G) - who also vote on Dr Marek's suitability to represent the electorate - said the majority of people have voted against him.

Labour politicians in Wrexham are unhappy

"He has lost six out of out seven wards and one was a draw.

"All six of the T&G have voted against him and I think he has won two or three other trade unions.

"I know that he will be unsuccessful," he said.

If Dr Marek gets more than half the nominations, he will be automatically reselected to fight the assembly elections on 1 May, 2003.

However, if there was a full scale renomination process every Labour party member in the constituency will have a vote.

The balloting would begin in January 2003. Dr Marek admitted he would probably face a reselection battle in the New Year but believed it would depend on how members of the T&G decided their nomination.

Dr Marek is hoping to retain his assembly seat

He has accused members of the trade union of wanting him out of office so they can put up a preferred candidate.

Mr Jeffreys strenuously denied the allegations.

"We have no candidate in place, if that was true the other wards and unions would have candidates too.

"John by nature is a maverick and the problem with maverick's is they are ineffective.

"Good politicians can work well together and build coalitions, but John can't build coalitions," he said.

This latest ballot was initiated by Wrexham council's Labour group after Dr Marek was originally reselected in January as the Wrexham candidate in a trigger ballot.

The majority of Labour branches supported the AM but most of the trade unions went against him.

Union row

Labour supporters on Wrexham council said the ballot was inconclusive and they asked the Labour executive in Wales not to endorse him.

Members offered him a lifeline when they offered him the opportunity to go through another trigger ballot rather than appear before a hearing to answer questions about his conduct and criticism of the council.

Dr Marek, who was formerly a local MP, has a reputation for angering members of the Welsh Labour Party.

Most recently he wrote to the Communications Workers' Union suggesting they should not give the party money if they did not like its policies.

Dr Marek caused Labour considerable surprise among AMs in 2000 by winning the election to become Deputy Presiding Officer ahead of Labour's official candidate, Rosemary Butler.