On the Green Party leadership and GPEx (Green Party Executive) elections of 2020

 The most competitive executive and leadership elections in Green Party history saw much less change than expected-and notably the lowest turnout ever in a Green Party Leadership election.

Even though there was a high standard of competition between the leader and deputy leader candidates, turnout dropped to 15.4% and 13.5% respectively in the said leader and deputy leader elections, and this cannot be solely attributed to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic given the turnout levels in the Liberal Democrat leadership election whose result was announced two weeks ago (Sir Ed Davey convincingly defeated Layla Moran on a turnout of 57.1%).

Sian Berry & Jonathan Bartley, the incumbents, were elected but polled only 48.9% of 1st preference votes compared to 75.1% in 2018, mainly due to the candidacy of Rosi Sexton who was also the only leadership candidate living north of the Wash (Rosi is a councillor in Solihull) and who controversially did not oppose HS2 or nuclear power. Rosi polled 26.9% and former Deputy Leader Shahrar Ali polled 23.6%.

Amelia Womack was also re-elected Deputy Leader, although due to a strong challenge from former Lord Mayor of Bristol Cleo Lake her first preferences dropped to 46.5% (from 54.3% in 2018). The Black Lives Matter protests provided a useful boost to Cleo's campaign but it was not enough to help her win or boost turnout to more respectable levels, although Cleo's first preference vote of 33.33% (exactly 1/3 of the valid votes cast) is the best result for any challenger to Amelia for the post of Green Party Deputy Leader so far. Andrea Carey Fuller, the Green PPC for Lewisham Deptford in 2019, polled 10.6%, and neither Tom Pashby nor Nick Humberstone polled even 5% apiece, despite the attention they received from Young Greens in particular and the fact Nick was the first candidate to announce a candidacy for Deputy Leader.

Of the GPEx results, the most surprising by far was incumbent Trade Union Liaison Officer Paul Valentine (standing alongside Matthew Hull) being pushed into third place by Kefentse Dennis and Theo Simon. Meanwhile Kai Taylor & Claire Stephenson, elected in the third round in the close contest for Elections Coordinator following the retirement of long-serving incumbent Judy Maciejowska, polled the lowest 1st preference vote percentage ever for a winning candidate in a Green Party internal election-30.6%.

The divisive issue of gender politics took prominence during much of the Green Party leadership campaign, but in the end it made little difference to the overall result, apart from being a factor in the record low turnout for the leader and deputy leader elections. The record level of competition for GPEx posts, such that four-way contests emerged for three of the positions up for election, did not manage to boost turnout, which was below 10% for every GPEx position.

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