Posted on 08/07/2002 5:41:05 PM PDT by dighton
A Government agency is to introduce electoral apartheid to Britain by holding a ballot in which voters are racially segregated.
The New Deal for Communities (NDC) in Nottingham is electing new members to its board in October, but voters are allowed to vote only for a candidate from the same ethnic background.
Supporters said the new system would ensure that businesses from ethnic minorities got “the board member they felt would represent their interests best”.
But doubts were cast yesterday on the new system’s moral, democratic and legal standing.
The poll is asking more than 250 businesses to elect four business representatives on to a 25-strong board set up to decide how £55 million of Government cash is spent regenerating two areas of inner-city Nottingham.
Rather than the traditional voting system, in which candidates are nominated and then chosen by the existing board, the agency decided to introduce a more direct system, “giving the man on the street a say on who represents him”.
Nominations will be put forward, then candidates split into groups depending on their colour.
Voters will then only be able to vote for a candidate of the same ethnic background. It will ensure a white, black and Asian representative is elected, with the fourth member decided on a “free” vote.
Pauline Davis, chief executive of the NDC in Nottingham, challenged suggestions that it was intending a form of apartheid or that it was seeking to ensure a black, white and Asian voice on the board.
She said: “We’re trying to give the voice to the African Caribbean and Asian sectors. In business in Nottingham there is a white majority and the white majority will always determine in a free vote who those candidates will be because of their numbers.
“We’re trying to give the people control over the decision-making processes. We are trying to do something different.”
The NDC, a quango, was set up two years ago. There are currently 39 in Britain. Businesses in the area gave the new system a cold reception and argued that with two black, one Asian and one white representative already the current system worked.
Peter Lowery, a white shopkeeper, said: “I want to vote for a specific black representative but I can’t. It’s just not right.”
Donna Kyle, also a shopkeeper, is of mixed heritage but would vote for a black candidate. She said: “It doesn’t bother me having to racially define myself, but not being able to vote for an Asian or white candidate does.”
But Leslie McDonald, a black businessman, said: “In other business organisations there are not many representatives for ethnic minorities. If, through this election, New Deal is trying to address that, they should be applauded.”
While the Electoral Reform Society said no rules were being broken, Andrew Denham, a lecturer in British politics at Nottingham University, said the voting method proposed was “rather bizarre”.
Kel Bert, an NDC board member, said: “In this community the whites are always going to have the majority. If they voted for a black member it is probably going to be one the black community is least likely to want.”
John Heppell, Labour MP for Nottingham East, supported the idea but Alan Simpson, Labour member for Nottingham South, said it was “not the best way, and not necessarily legal”.
© Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2002.
Chilling indeed.
That remains to be seen.
It's almost funny how racist liberals are now.
Didn't Rupe Murdoch's UK rags endorse Blair in last year's election? I remember reading so here on FR.
foreverfree
Yeah if I remember right I think they did. Wonder if they would now?
The poll is asking more than 250 businesses..
It's simply a vote for a business quango, not a political election.
Agreed wholeheartedly and it's something that needs keeping a very close eye on indeed. I hope it never makes the jump to the political arena over here: I think (hope!) there'd be huge protests and outrage if it did. As you say, though, if people get used to it in these small quango forums, it may spread like cancer, bit by bit.
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