A photo of Green Party campaigners in Bristol

Members of the Green Party of England and Wales will this summer be voting to elect new members of the party’s executive (GPEx). Almost half of the positions are up for election this year, with members being elected to two year terms. The party’s electoral returning officer has now published the full list of candidates.

Two positions in this year’s elections are uncontested. Only Julian Cusack – the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate for the Suffolk Coastal constituency – is standing for the finance coordinator position. Meanwhile, the incumbent Rosie Rawle – who is also a city councillor in Oxford – is the only candidate for local party support coordinator. Both Cusack and Rawle will be on the ballot paper only alongside re-open nominations. Rawle is the only incumbent seeking re-election in this year’s elections.

There are two candidates in the running for internal communications coordinator. As reported by Bright Green, Laura Eccott and Alastair Binnie-Lubbock are standing as a job share. Binnie-Lubbock is a councillor in Hackney, while Eccott is currently a member of the Green Party Women committee. They’ll be up against Helen Geake – a former councillor in Mid Suffolk and an archaeologist who has featured on the former Channel 4 show Time Team.

The publications coordinator contest will also see two candidates go head to head. Seb Cousins and Cade Hatton – both members of the LGBTIQA+ Greens committee – announced they are standing for the position as a job share over the weekend. Also in the running is Edward Milford. Milford stood unsuccessfully for the elections coordinator position in last year’s elections and served on GPEx from 2009-13.

The final two horse race is for policy development coordinator. Dylan Lewis-Creser and Tom Atkin were the first to announce their candidacy. They’re standing as a job share and both are members of the LGBTIQA+ Greens committee. The second candidate for the position is Anne Gayfer, who is the Greens’ parliamentary candidate for the Grantham and Stamford constituency.

The mostly hotly contested position this year is equality and diversity coordinator. Ria Patel and Kelsey Trevett confirmed they were standing as a job share last week. Patel is a councillor in Croydon and the Green Party’s equality and diversity spokesperson, while Trevett is the current co-chair of the Young Greens. Former trade union liaison officer on GPEx Kefentse Dennis is standing against them. Dennis stood unsuccessfully for management coordinator in last year’s elections. And finally, Melissa Poulton – the secretary of the party’s Gypsy, Roma and Traveller Policy Working Group – is also in the race.

GPEx is one of the Green Party’s two primary governing bodies – alongside the Green Party Regional Council. GPEx has a crucial role in party governance, holding overall responsibility for the party’s finances, acting as the employer of staff and overseeing day to day operations. Alongside this, GPEx makes key political decisions, such as the appointment of the party’s spokespeople.

Voting in the GPex elections opens on August 1 and closes on August 31.

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Image credit: Matthew Phillip Long – Creative Commons