To all AWP members and supporters - a little more detail on
Animal Welfare Party's results in the 2015 General Election:
Professor Andrew Knight, AWP Candidate for Kensington 158
votes / 0.45%
Jon Homan, AWP Candidate for Hackney North & Stoke Newington 225 votes / 0.44%
Guy Dessoy, AWP Candidate for Putney 184 votes / 0.43%
Vanessa Hudson, AWP Candidate for Holborn & St. Pancras 173 votes / 0.32%
Total votes across 4 constituencies: 740 / average 0.41%
Jon Homan, AWP Candidate for Hackney North & Stoke Newington 225 votes / 0.44%
Guy Dessoy, AWP Candidate for Putney 184 votes / 0.43%
Vanessa Hudson, AWP Candidate for Holborn & St. Pancras 173 votes / 0.32%
Total votes across 4 constituencies: 740 / average 0.41%
This is the second time that Animal Welfare Party (formerly
known as Animals Count) has contested a UK General Election and our fifth
election overall, since we were formed in 2006.
Although compared to the results of some of the other
parties standing, yesterday's figures may seem low, here at AWP we are
delighted with the results which show definite progress since we contested the
previous General Election in 2010. In that election, our party had the funds to
stand just one candidate, the wonderful orator, Richard Deboo, in the
constituency of Islington South and Finsbury. In that election the results
were:
Richard Deboo Animals Count Candidate for Islington South
& Finsbury 149 votes / 0.3%
The fact that, thanks to you, we were able to raise the
deposits to stand four candidates in this election and to print 289,000
leaflets - one each for every single home in each of the four constituencies is
huge progress for our party in and of itself. As you are no doubt aware, other
than the donations we receive from members and supporters like you who believe
in our aims, our party receives no other funding. The fact that you answered
our call to raise funds to be able to stand more than one candidate in this
election is fantastic - the fact that we were able to stand not just two
candidates, as we had been hoping for, or three, but, in the end, a total of
four is an amazing result and one that we cannot thank you enough for.
As for our overall result, yesterday demonstrates a clear
increase from 0.3% of the vote in 2010 to an average of 0.4% of the vote in
2015.
Of course we would have liked this figure to have been
higher but our core team were well prepared for a figure of around this amount
knowing, as we do, that with the 'First Past the Post' system used in the UK
General Election, it is extremely difficult for small parties like ours to make
political headway. Added to that was the particular nature of this election,
where it looked for the past few weeks that no party would have a clear
majority and many voters, once again, felt the need to vote tactically rather
than for the party they may have wanted to. We continue to believe that our
best opportunities for electoral success lie in elections that use a system of
Proportional Representation, such as the EU Parliament elections. In the last
EU Parliament election (2014) we received 0.96% of the vote - not so far behind
the 1.2% of the vote won by our German counterparts, Tierschutz Partei, which
won them one seat in the EU Parliament.
Votes aside, we are also delighted that awareness of our
party has risen substantially over the past year. Out canvassing, many more
people are now aware of who we are than were previously and, as you may have
seen, we have received hundreds of messages from people across the UK, asking
if they could vote AWP where they live or expressing their desire to Vote AWP,
if only there had been an AWP candidate in their constituency.
That raised awareness is directly down to you - our members
and supporters - and the calls you have answered from us to donate funds and
attend fundraising events, to share emails and social media content, to change
your social media profile pictures to one of ours, to leaflet in the streets on
our behalf and to take part in PR activities like our recent battle bus tour of
London. We cannot thank you enough for the kindness and belief in our aims that
you have shown. On behalf of all our candidates, a huge thank you, not just to
everyone who voted for us in this election, but also to the hundreds more
people behind the scenes who helped us win those votes.
Yesterday's result shows us, of course, that we still have
work to do but one thing is clear, we have helped raise animal welfare issues
on the political agenda and will continue to work to do so.
Onwards for
animals!
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Commentaar
Zover ik kan zien hebben nieuwe partijen in het Britse kiesstelsel vrijwel geen kans.
UKIP?
