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Anti-war Asians punish Labour
28/ 6/2004
NORTH West Asians voters gave Labour another bloody nose over
its invasion of Iraq.
As in the 2003 local election the 2004 poll revealed them voting
for anti-war parties leading to Labour losses in wards where there
are significant Asian communities.
In Manchester Labour lost 11 seats and Liberal Democrats swept the
board in Whalley Range, Longsight and Rusholme, all areas of high
Asian population.
The exception was Cheetham where its colourful councillor Qasim
Afzal, the Manchester Liberal Democrat chairman, lost to
Labour.
A factor here could have been a decision by the Labour candidates,
including Councillor Afzal Khan and former race relations spokesman
Imran Rivzi, to openly oppose Labour pro-Iraq war policy.
In Rochdale the retiring mayor, Sultan Ali, went down to a Lib Dem
challenge but greeted his defeat with some relief pointing out that
it would allow him more time with his family.
The Iraq factor carried on into the elections for the European
Parliament with the Lib Dems gaining a seat. Their new MEP,
Blackburn solicitor Sajjad Karim, is the party's first Asian and
non-white parliamentarian.
He said hostility to the Labour government's policy on Iraq had
been a decisive issue.
"On the doorstep, time and time again, voters have raised the issue
of Iraq. It was not just about the war. It was about honesty and
the prime minister making a decision to abandon our EU partners, to
make the UN impotent and to stand with the Americans on this issue.
The vast majority of people I spoke to said they were unhappy with
that."
The other big news for the Asian community was the British National
Party's failure to achieve the breakthrough its racists leaders had
been predicting.
In Oldham where the right-wing extremist launched their biggest
push outside of Burnley, all six of its candidates failed to win a
council seat as the party polled a total of 4,754 votes
borough-wide - a 40 per cent drop on last year.
Their only consolation was to finish ahead of the Conservatives in
several wards there.
In Burnley, where the BNP made a shock breakthrough last year, they
still have six seats, losing one to the Tories but gaining one from
Labour by defeating a long serving councillor and mayor elect John
Harbour.
But their biggest defeat came in the north west Euro election where
BNP leader Nick Griffin led his party's list.
The BNP needed around 11 per cent of the poll to see their leader
make the Euro parliament but they received only 6.4 per cent.
There were however, some alarming successes, including beating the
Lib Dems into third place in Tameside and winning 7,608 votes in
Wigan.
Mr Griffin had arrived at the declaration in Manchester's
surrounded by a clutch of bouncers as BNP supporters and
anti-fascist demonstrators faced-off across a police cordon. He
left before the results were announced to chants of "loser, loser"
from his political opponents.
The Euro-election saw nine MEPs elected for the north west, down
one on last year due to expansion of the EU. The ballot was
conducted entirely by post. .
The official turnout figure for the north west was 41.46 per cent,
more than double the 19.7 per cent achieved in the region using the
traditional ballot box in 1999.
There was also a large number of rejected ballots, 20,457, giving
opponents of the postal system more ammunition.
The system of proportional representation used meant candidates
were elected from a ranked list depending how many votes their
party got. Labour's top three candidates were chosen, together with
the three leading Tories, two Lib Dems and United Kingdom
Independence Party's John Whittaker.
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