Council Chief faces criticism over polling day fiasco

Article published: Sunday, August 15th 2010

Liberal Democrat MP for Withington John Leech has criticised the decision by Manchester City Council returning officer Sir Howard Bernstein to donate a fifth of his bonus for the election to the Lord Mayor’s Charity.

Leech argues that instead the money should go towards benefiting locals affected by the polling fiasco that left over 200 residents of Fallowfield unable to vote in his constituency back in May’s general election.

Troubles arose when contingency measures to deal with the increased turnout in the final hours of election night were not followed by polling station staff or station inspectors. The measures were designed to ensure that extra staff would be sent to polling stations where queues had formed, but as more voters turned up without polling cards the decision was made to turn people away in order to meet the 10pm deadline.  Some voters had queued for over 2 hours in order to cast their vote in time.

A spokesperson for the returning officer for Manchester said at the time that “the law states that the doors to polling stations must be closed at 10pm exactly, and no-one may be issued with a ballot paper after 10pm”.

However, it was later revealed in a report by the Electoral Commission that a number of issues including IT system failure and staffing problems led to an inability to sufficiently handle the high voter turnout. The report states that there was “evidence of poor planning assumptions in some areas” and “use of unsuitable buildings”.

It was reported in June that Bernstein would not accept his £19,250 bonus as a result of the shambolic running of the polls. However he later offered to donate £4,000 of his fee to the Lord Mayor’s charity, which provides holidays for families affected by poverty in Manchester.

John Leech has argued that this is not sufficient compensation, declaring: “all those affected by the polling fiasco were of course living in the area surrounding the polling stations; therefore I firmly believe this £4,000 should go towards the local community, so those who were unable to vote can benefit from an investment into their local area and hence feel compensated in some way”.

Sir Howard Bernstein receives an annual salary of £199,000 as chief Executive of Manchester City Council, but has decided to keep £16,000 of his bonus despite the problems. In Sheffield, City Council Boss John Mothersole declined his £20,000 returning officer fee after admitting that his council had “got things wrong”. Leech meanwhile has proposed that Bernstein should “follow suit”.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of human rights campaign group Liberty, appealed to Withington voters in May to mount group action against the City Council on the grounds of civil rights, declaring: “Shameful scenes of hundreds of voters turned away from polling stations are unworthy of a mature democracy like ours”.

The Electoral Commission has proposed that legislation should be amended to allow voters present in the queue at the time of closing to cast their votes. David Monks, leader of Britain’s returning officers, lambasted the rules for the voting system as an “immensely Victorian system that’s way past its sell by date”.

A Withington resident who didn’t wish to give their name shared their thoughts with MULE: “It is disgusting that a man who already earns so much money in the public service should profit from this. People were denied their democratic right and the buck should stop at the top. If this were in central government there would be calls for his resignation, never mind not merely accepting a bonus.”

Joe Beech

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Comments

1. […] and inadequate staffing. Eventually Sir Howard donated £4,000 of this sum to charity but was still strongly criticised by MP John Leech.  Sir Howard’s audacity becomes all the more acute when looking at the pay increases he has been […]

   Pingback by Council Chief Clings to Cash  —   MULE on October 19, 2010 at 3:37 pm

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