0835 Hrs GMT
London
Friday
23 April 2010
Editor © Muhammad Haque
BHANGEELAAR! The campaign in Tower Hamlets for a ‘NO’ vote on 6 May 2010 to an elected mayor in the borough is part of the movement for a democratic local Council.
What does this mean?
For a start, it means accountability by the elected councillors to the community whose votes they seek to get elected and then do get in.
How is voting ‘NO’ to an elected mayor helpful?
Quite simply by making sure that those who get elected as councillors can continue to do the democratic job as councillors. This is about the key principle: the legitimate, the constitutional right and the option to have the say.
This they cannot do if the rules are changed.
The election of an ‘executive’ mayor will take away from councillors significant powers. Have the councillors elected so far been doing their job? This is a crucial question.
Many of the councillors have not been doing their job.
And some have not been up to the job! However, the problem with the direct election of an 'executive’ mayor is that such an ‘executive power’-wielding postholder will then be able to make things even worse.
What does that mean? It means that whereas at present we have some councillors who are not up to the job and many who won ’t do the job, the constitutional POWER, the right to have a valid say on Council conduct - that is, to do the job- will be removed by the change. So if the ‘leadership’ of the council is kept with a number of councillors [called ‘the cabinet’] and a leader, the principle is that IF THE individual members of the cabinet WANT TO PUT IN THER contribution they can do so.
This will not be possible with an executive mayor.
We have to keep the option available for a group of councillors to have their different views and opinions on policy and on practice.
All subject to the universal values and criteria of democracy.
Doing away with that right will mean that if, theoretically there is a councillor who wants to make a contribution, and intervene on behalf of a voter or a member of the ward or of the community at large in Tower Hamlets, they won’t succeed in getting across their views or opinions within a crucially changed framework of the Council.
An elected mayor who wants to behave solo can do so. They can do so with confidence.
The rules will allow them to. So they can brag and they can boast and they can make deals. Those deals can be done behind closed doors. And the elected councillors may not take part in any of those deals! Affecting major issues.
[To be continued]
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