Makana Independent New Deal (Mind) has decided not to contest the local government elections scheduled for 18 May.
Makana Independent New Deal (Mind) has decided not to contest the local government elections scheduled for 18 May.
The suprise announcement came only two weeks after the newly formed political party held its candidate selection meeting at the Public Library in Hill Street. Interim chairperson of Mind, Jock McConnachie, said in a statement that the Mind executive had met on Saturday, "… to objectively assess our prospects in the coming election against the targets we had set ourselves."
"We had to face the hard reality that we were not going to achieve what we hoped we might. We therefore decided as an executive not to contest. It appears that the party based system is here to stay – at least for the present."
He said the decision was taken after careful consideration and was consistent with one of the group's founding principles, namely, to contest the election only if there was a realistic possibility of gaining a majority of seats on the Makana Council.
McConnachie said, "Mind's intention was to change the party based system of local government and to make sweeping changes to the way local government presently functions." McConnachie is an energetic and sometimes controversial local advocate who was named Grocott's Mail's Newsmaker of the year for 2010.
He has consistently argued against the politicisation of local government and aimed, through the creation of Mind, to create an alliance of municipal councillors who did not owe allegiance to any political party. However, in order to contest the elections under a single banner, the grouping of potential candidates was forced to register as a political party.
McConnachie said despite months of hard work, an insufficient number of prospective candidates had made themselves available as part of the grouping. He explained that the effect of the decision would be to terminate all activities of Mind.
This means that there will be no Mind-endorsed ward or PR candidates list for the coming election, but that individuals might still choose to stand for election in their own right.
