Edinburgh Council Wild Card #2: No Posters!

I don’t want to overstate the case but banning posters in an STV election is, erm, an unusual tactic.

If you’re late to this Conservative Councillor Gordon Buchan in the wake of Scottish Parliament election posters still hanging around weeks after the event put forward this motion:

“Council

i) notes that several weeks following the Scottish Parliament elections, there
are still election posters for candidates of all parties on street furniture;

ii) resolves to ban election posters for all future elections as they are
considered wasteful, not environmentally friendly and no longer relevant in
promoting elections.”

The Conservatives along with the SNP and Lib Dems voted for the motion and it was passed. As can be seen in Gavin Corbett’s blog it was vehemently opposed by the Greens. Labour also opposed strongly.

Now I thought the Tories were all bright and shining libertarians seeking to free all and sundry from the shackles of red tape. I also find this peculiar as it is after all the councillors and their pals that put the posters up in the first place. Recognising their inability to reform the excesses of their own behaviour councillors moved to legislate against it.

Why does this matter? Well I’m an old political romantic and I like the posters. I like the competition as all parties turn grey lamp posts into a festoon of clashing colours and competing ideologies. But that is rhubarb. There is also the issue of voter turn out and the fact that the posters create a very real sense of occasion and hopefully help a few more along to the ballot box. I however can find no evidence of causality on posters and turn out – it would be a rubbish PhD subject anyway.

Posters are important for this reason. Voter management. With three of the five main parties standing two candidates in wards, posters are the easiest way to advertise this fact. And even more crucially varying the order of the candidates by street or area of a ward helps balance the first preferences between the candidates. The local parties being novices at this didn’t use this kind of poster last time and opted for the normal ‘Winning Here’ kind of thing.

Think I’m talking rubbish? Perfectly possible. But then why did top of the alphabetical ballot Ewan Aitken garner 3,487 when his Labour running mate and long time councillor Shami Khan only managed 600?

In Northern Ireland they take the opposite tack. The poster is a fundamental weapon in delivering Assembly members and it is so effective that Sinn Fein can win 5 out of the 6 seats in Belfast West leaving their nationalist rivals the SDLP praying they win one:

Sinn Fein are very open about their strategy. Ensure maximum representation and vote for all 5. And here’s the order to do it in your area, nicely balancing their first preferences. Here’s an example of how they order their posters in South Down.

Now there are obviously very good historical reasons why Sinn Fein can do this but the sheer perfection has to be admired. This election will be won on who can protect their second candidate from the drop in time to earn the transfers. Why tie your hands?