Nominations for the important elections to Labour’s National Constitutional Committee (NCC), the party’s senior disciplinary body, are underway and will close 28 October. The contest itself became clearer for members with yesterday’s announcement of a unified ‘slate’ of left-wing candidates by CLPD, Momentum and other organisations.

However, there has been considerable confusion over the issues of who is entitled to vote and how the process is going to work. Initially the party said votes would be by delegates to last month’s conference, as NCC members are usually elected at conference by delegates, but emails and other announcements suggested it would be local party secretaries who were entitled to vote.

The confusion extended up the party, with confusion even among party admin staff and the NEC (National Executive Committee) exacerbated by an email yesterday seeming to reinforce the idea that secretaries will vote.

The SKWAWKBOX has clarified with the NEC and party that delegates will have voting rights – but secretaries will be responsible for submitting details of the delegate vote.

Local parties should arrange meetings on their usual basis to nominate their preferred six candidates and secretaries should ensure nominations are submitted at the latest 28 October.

However, delegates who were elected to represent their CLP (constituency Labour party) at last month’s conference will then need to agree which candidates to vote for in the actual ballot.

The votes cast will carry proportional weight according to the size of the constituency’s Labour membership. For example, a CLP of 1000 people will have twice the voting weight of one of 500, which is how it works at each annual conference.

While nominations will close 28 October, the ballot to elect the new NCC representatives will open 12 November. The closing date for the ballot is 25 November.

So, to recap:

Now : nominations to be made by CLPs using their normal meeting process (general committee or all-member meeting). CLP secretaries must send in nominations

: nominations to be made by CLPs using their normal meeting process (general committee or all-member meeting). CLP secretaries must send in nominations 28 Oct : closing date for receipt of nominations

: closing date for receipt of 12 Nov : ballot opens for delegate votes . Conference delegates must agree the candidates they want to support – they don’t necessarily need to meet – and notify their CLP secretary, who will submit the vote on behalf of the CLP and its delegates via sign-on details that will be provided to the secretaries. The decision among delegates can be made any time after the CLP’s nominations have been made but cannot be submitted by secretaries until 12 Nov or after

: ballot opens for delegate . Conference delegates must agree the candidates they want to support – they don’t necessarily need to meet – and notify their CLP secretary, who will submit the vote on behalf of the CLP and its delegates via sign-on details that will be provided to the secretaries. The decision among delegates can be made any time after the CLP’s nominations have been made but cannot be submitted by secretaries until 12 Nov or after 25 Nov: close of delegate ballot

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