In These New Times

Telegraph

10th May, 2010

Jenny Watson, who earns £100,000 for working a three day week as chairman of the Electoral Commission quango, has faced an angry response from thousands of voters who were unable to exercise their democratic right on May 6.

She has also been drawn into an increasingly bitter war of words with returning officers.

Miss Watson, 46, a former Left-wing campaigner, responded to farcical scenes at polling stations across the country by criticising returning officers, saying there were not enough staff, and bemoaning a system that was “a legacy of the Victorian era”.

However, her excuse was met with derision, with many pointing out that the same system had coped perfectly well in the past, often with higher turnouts of voters.

David Monks, the leader of Britain’s 400 returning officers, said yesterday that Miss Watson’s claims “lacked a grasp of reality” – as he urged people who were unable to vote to seek a rerun.

Mr Monks said a late surge in voters was one factor, but argued that extra staffing at polling stations would not have helped because each station had just one register, with one person ticking off names.

He said part of the blame was due to a high number of new returning officers with little or no experience in running elections.

A spokesman for Solace – the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives – admitted that mistakes were made but said Miss Watson’s criticism had been unhelpful.

Although individual returning officers in each council are legally responsible for the operation of the election, the Commission is supposed to ensure the smooth running of the system.

The watchdog has a staff of around 150 people and a budget of around £25million.

In the late Nineties Miss Watson was campaign manager at Charter 88 – the Left-wing pressure group that advocated constitutional and electoral reform.

At the time, she said: “The House of Lords is a relic, an active hindrance to a government which the people chose to control the country.”

Miss Watson has moved from quango to quango, fronting the Equal Opportunities Commission, where some nicknamed her “Modern Militant”.

She lives in east London with Andrew Puddephatt, the former general-secretary of Liberty.

Miss Watson was appointed to her job in January last year by the Speakers’ Committee of senior MPs, and earns another £28,000 for sitting on the boards of the Audit Commission and another government quango.

Polling stations in London, Sheffield, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle and Leeds were caught out by a late turnout of voters.

Official election monitors from Kenya and Sierra Leone yesterday told how the British system as a “recipe for corruption”.

Mr Monks said: “I am not inviting people to take action against myself and my colleagues. But I am saying if people have genuine grounds for believing breaches occurred and mistakes were made and this had a genuine impact on the result, then they should push for an election petition.”

Meanwhile Bridget Prentice, the justice minister, said a separate organisation devoted solely to elections should be looked into.

She told the Daily Mail: “The investigation now needs to look at whether there should be a separate, slimmed down electoral administration organisation to focus on the machinery of elections and ensure that clearer guidance goes to returning officers and their staff so that this never happens again.”

Candidates and voters who are unhappy with a result have 21 days to mount a challenge. Any voter who feels the outcome of the election has been influenced by mistakes in polling stations can serve an election petition in the High Court.

Complainants bringing the action must make a payment of £5,000, although this is returned in full if their claim is successful. This may limit such actions to parties and candidates.