From Bristol 24-7 http://www,bristol247.com
The deputy prime minister, shadow chancellor and Britain’s most famous independent MP will be in Bristol today as the mayor election race enters its final furlong.
Nick Clegg will make his second visit in a month to support Liberal Democrat candidate Jon Rogers. The councillor is attempting to make a late fightback in the race, following a poll last week which showed he was out of the running to gain a firs
t-round first or second place.
Favourite for the election, Labour’s Marvin Rees will be visited by shadow chancellor Ed Balls, following visits by party leader Ed Miliband and deputy leader Harriet Harman in recent weeks.
Meanwhile, Martin Bell – who became the independent MP for Tatton between 1997 and 2001 after defeating disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton – will be at The Tobacco Factory to support Bristol 1st candidate George Ferguson.
Former broadcast journalist Mr Bell said he believes that Bristol can be a “national pioneer of a new, inclusive, independent politics”.
Mr Ferguson, who believes the election on Thursday will be a “straight fight” between himself and Mr Rees will be joined by Mr Bell and a number of high-profile independent politicians.
They will include Siobhan Benita, who won 84,000 first votes and 212,000 second votes standing as an independent in last year’s London mayoral election.
Liam Fogarty, who as an independent candidate was runner up in Liverpool’s first mayoral election will be present, alongside Sue Mountstevens, the only independent candidate in the Avon and Somerset Police and Crime Commissioner elections, and local businessman Andy Thorne, who stood down as an independent mayoral candidate to back Mr Ferguson’s campaign.
With the election just three days away, postal votes have already started being counted. Some 46,000 Bristolians registered for a postal vote in the mayoral election, but there are already fears about how many will end up being counted towards the final total.
A member of the George Ferguson campaign team told Bristol24-7 that he had already seen “hundreds” of votes having to be binned because they had not been completed properly.
A team of 50 staff are on hand to process the postal votes as they come in ready for counting on Friday, November
16.
Returned postal votes contain a form completed by the elector with their signature and date of birth and an inner sealed envelope containing their ballot papers.
However, the campaign team member said after an invitation to view the postal votes coming in to Bristol City Council he had seen some 500 votes out of 15,000 being destroyed as they had not been signed properly.
Meanwhile, there are also fears about the turnout for the police and crime commissioner election taking place on the same day.
Policy Exchange, the right-of-centre think tank which proposed the PCC role, said the Government had failed to communicate the new elected police chief concept clearly enough to the general public.
It expects just 15% of the public to vote – well below the 23% recorded in the 1999 European elections, the worst-ever turnout in a national poll.
It urged Prime Minister David Cameron to make a last-ditch “Henry V-style rallying cry” to encourage people to vote.
