George Pippas re-elected as a city councillor for the ward
After one of the more interesting election campaigns of the past few years in this ward, Liberal Democrat former mayor George Pippas (above right) was tonight elected for a further year as one of Queen Edith’s three city councillors. Independent candidate Sam Davies was runner-up, followed by Labour’s Dan Greef, the Green Party’s Elisabeth Whitebread and the Conservatives’ Manas Deb.
Results in full:
- George Pippas (Lib Dem) 1067
- Sam Davies (Ind) 838
- Dan Greef (Lab) 464
- Elisabeth Whitebread (Green) 329
- Manas Deb (Con) 205
Turnout was an impressive 44%, the second-highest in the whole city, which pleased me no end, being part of the Queen Edith’s Community Forum team which has been trying to promote awareness of the election and the candidates. I hope the council might take note of how strongly the residents respond when given more information.
Some quick analysis; the vote share graph below comes courtesy of political blogger Phil Rodgers:
Queen Edith's graph – the lone Independent blob doesn't really convey @Sam_in_Cam's very impressive second place performance. She's well placed to take a seat in next year's all-up elections. pic.twitter.com/zvxiyDEEKO
— Phil Rodgers (@PhilRodgers) May 3, 2019
Clearly Sam Davies’ share of the vote came at the expense of the usual three main parties, even pushing the Conservatives into last place. While it looks as if the Liberal Democrats were least affected, across the rest of the city their vote share rose notably, so it’s probably fair to say that the independent’s impact was as high on Liberal Democrat voters as on Labour or Conservative voters. The Green Party also did well across the city, which explains the otherwise fairly inexplicable rise in their vote here, despite having a candidate who didn’t seem to make any effort in the election at all.
Comparing votes to last year:
- Liberal Democrat ?192 (?15%)
- Independent +838
- Labour ?363 (?44%)
- Green +111 (+50%)
- Conservative ?338 (?62%)
Comparing vote share to last year:
- Liberal Democrat 36.7% (?7.5%)
- Independent 28.9% (+28.9%)
- Labour 16.0% (?13.0%)
- Green 11.3% (+3.6%)
- Conservative 7.0% (?12.1%)