Electoral system gives Labour 100% control of Crawley with less than 40% of the votes

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 1st Jul 2004

The 2004 elections in Crawley resulted in Labour getting 19 seats, Tories 16 and the Lib Dems 2. However if the seats had reflected what the 3 main parties had actually got in votes then Labour would only have got 14, with the Tories getting 18 and the Lib Dems 4.

A letter from a resident in Pound Hill in the Crawley Observer on 23 June summed it up perfectly "It is curious that an election called to improve democracy results in a minority party running the Council."

As a result of the farcical election system this country has Labour not only continue to run the Council but have arrogantly decided that they will provide the Mayor, Deputy Mayor, all of the Cabinet posts, will Chair all of the Council Committees and provide the Chair for all other meetings of the Council that run our town. So much for democracy.

As re-elected Lib Dem Councillor Linda Seekings said "If this is not one of the biggest arguments for a new fairer electoral system then I don't know what is. What makes it worse is that the Labour party are now acting like a banana republic dictatorship in running Crawley this way. Crawley Labour party are an affront to democracy and should be exposed as such. What is particularly sad is that several of their members know this and have said so to me privately. I just wish they had the guts to say so publicly."

Also re-elected Lib Dem Councillor Gordon Seekings said "The Scottish parliament has agreed to introduce a fair voting system for Local Government elections within the next few years. It's a pity the UK government doesn't do it for England as well - but then they have Lib Dems in government in Scotland."