Making a mark in local elections

Dickon Hooper
BBC News Online Bristol

Bristol City Council is under no overall control

The May elections for Bristol City Council inspired just one in three people to bother voting.

So what's new? Turnout for local elections is always low: the national average in the May elections was just 37%.

But what are the specific reasons behind voters in the city staying at home?

BBC News Online investigates what makes people stay away and what can be done about it.

The first reason for voter absenteeism, apathy or protest, is that voters believe their ticked box won't make any difference - either to their life, or in some cases, to the actual result.

Is it any wonder that people cannot be bothered to vote, when elected councillors behave like small kids?

Nobby
Talk Bristol

Paula, a regular on BBCi Bristol's message board, Talk Bristol, said there was no candidate worth her vote.

"I have voted Labour all my life, but it doesn't matter whether Labour or Conservative is in power, the story is the same, she said.

"Give us a decent standard of living, and I may be interested in voting again."

Paul Burton, senior lecturer in policy studies at the University of Bristol's centre for urban studies, identifies several reasons behind voters staying away.

The first is that councillors do not meet their constituents that often, and when they make the effort in the run up to elections, their electioneering actually increases voters' frustration.

His solution is seen by many as a radical one.

"As part of the Bristol Democracy Commission, we proposed to halve the number of councillors and pay them to work full-time, at say £30,000 a year.

"Councillors should spend more time in their wards listening to the concerns and aspirations of their constituents.

No one wants to take charge at the council house

"The parties have run out of suitable people and rely on the retired, or others with independent financial means, who are not representative of the population."

Mr Burton says this feeds into the idea of politics at a local level being too partisan: of councillors acting in the interests of their parties, and not the people and city they represent.

Donnelly Yates, on Talk Bristol, says it is a pity that local government works this way.

"Councillors' first loyalty seems to be to the ethos of their national party, and conversely local politicians often get the rough end of the local voters' stick as a "punishment" for national policies going wrong."

The current situation at the council does not help to counter this argument.

The authority is hung, with no overall control - and no one party stepping up to take charge.

Labour say they will go into opposition as this is what the people have voted for: the Lib Dems want a cabinet including all three main parties, and the Tories say they will take charge - but they need support.

The council has several days more to resolve th issue, but the party infighting has not played well with the electorate.

A Talk Bristol regular, Nobby, says: "Is it any wonder that people cannot be bothered to vote, when elected councillors behave like small kids?"

Proportional representation is designed to make more people's votes count

Paul Burton

Mr Burton suggests an elected mayor could help get around this issue.

"None of the parties advocated joining up before the election and if one party had an overall majority, this would not be an issue.

"One of the reasons the Bristol Democracy Commission supported the idea of an elected mayor was that it would increase the likelihood of someone running on a non-partisan ticket."

The theory is that a mayor runs and governs on a "best for the city" platform, above party politics, working togther with a cabinet that includes all the main parties.

Ken Livingstone would be the first to agree.

Complicated process

So what else could be changed about the system to help boost turnout?

Many think that without some form of proportional representation, voters are right to believe their vote does not actually make a difference.

And without a "none of the above" box, it is difficult to express opposition towards councillors and/or the election process and yet not be branded apathetic.

Mr Burton said: "Proportional representation is designed to make more people's votes count.

"But it may not make a difference - look at the elections in Wales - and it can make the process more complicated."

Postal voting has also been tipped as a possible means to help get more people to the ballot box.

Civic duty

Although other projects - like e-voting and digital voting - had limited effects in May.

On the flipside, why did 35% of Bristolians turn out?

Mr Burton has three reasons.

"For some it is an obligation, a sense of civic duty.

"Although this plays better with the older generation, citizenship is being emphasised much more now.

The Bristolian

"People also vote from habit or from experience - what peoples' parents do can have an impact," he added.

At ward level, Cabot registered the lowest turnout (24%) , while Frome Vale and Stockward did their best to boost the overall figure - registering 41% each.

Of particular interest were five wards where minority parties - The Bristolian and the BNP - beat the traditional parties into third place - albeit through a very low number of votes.

Perhaps the only consolation any would-be politician can take from the May results is that the number of voters who bothered to turn out in Bristol was flat on last year: at least it didn't go down.