Record numbers vote in Green leadership contest

Nearly 13,000 people, about 30% of fully paid-up members, have voted in the Green Party of England and Wales’s leadership election with two days left to go, according to the convener of the party’s standing orders committee.

This is the highest ever figure, both as a total number of votes and as a percentage of eligible voters, since the annual ballot was introduced in its current form in 2011.

At the time the polls opened, there were 43,000 fully paid-up members of the Green Party of England and Wales. This does not include 8,000 ‘grace members’ who were paid-up members but have not (yet) renewed their membership and remain semi-members for a six months.

In 2012, Natalie Bennett was elected on a turnout of 25% which at that time was just 3,100 members. In 2014, she was re-elected unopposed on a 15% turnout.

Party members are now voting for a new leader(s), deputy leaders(s) as well as several other positions on the Green Party executive.

Voting ends on August 25 and members can vote by searching their email inbox for a message from onlinevoting@electoralreform.co.uk.

Update: As of midday on 25th of August, the last day of voting, turnout had increased to 33%.