Can anyone explain Labour’s euro-list ranking system?

Here is a  paragraph from an e-mail Labour party members will have received in the past 24hrs; it explains the way our European candidates will be ranked on the party list following the membership vote:

“If a male candidate secures the most preferences, then the highest-placed female candidate will come next on the list, followed by the next highest male candidate and then by the female and so on. If a female candidate secures the most preferences, then the highest-placed male will come next on the list, followed by the next female candidate and then by the male.

This process is known as zipping and is used by the Labour Party in European candidate selections to help to balance male and female candidates.”

All clear? Thought so.

At a time when there is widespread mistrust in politicians and disengagement in politics, does this really represent the most transparent way of selecting candidates?

Is “zipping” what the new politics is all about?

Answers on a postcard please to the Labour party, One Brewer’s Green, London SW1H 0RH.


3 Responses to “Can anyone explain Labour’s euro-list ranking system?”

  1. swatantra says:

    As clear as mud. Never liked the List System anyway.This is Taking PR too Far.

  2. Alex Harvey says:

    How is this difficult to understand?

  3. Richard Gadsden says:

    This is simple – whoever wins, wins, but after that, it goes man, woman, man, woman, or woman, man, woman, man, etc.

    Anyone who doesn’t fall into the gender binary is not allowed to stand at all, of course.

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