Labour win but no overall majority in QE mock election

Norbert Sobolak, representing Labour, emerged as the clear winner in QE’s mock election.

In a turn-out of 645, with seven invalid papers, he received 220 votes – 34.11% of the total.
Adam Hilsenrath who stood for the Conservatives, polled 155 votes, or 24.03% of the total,with Akhil Palaniappan, representing UKIP, in third with 137 votes, 21.24% of the vote. In 2010 the School election was won by the Liberal Democrat candidate; this year the Liberal Democrats, represented by Alex Lishak, were pushed back to fourth place, with Che Applewhaite in fifth for the Green Party.

Since no party had an overall majority, Norbert’s Labour would need to find someone to work with if he wished to form a government – just as in the General Election the pundits were predicting that neither of the leading parties would be outright winners.

“It was an interesting exercise and I would like to thank everyone involved,” said Head of Year 13 Liam Hargadon. “The significant swing away from the Liberal Democrats and the failure of any party to secure an outright majority of votes, is very much what is anticipated in the actual vote.”

In the week before the mock election, pupils were invited to a full hustings held in the Main Hall at lunchtime, at which they could put questions to the party leaders. This Question Time-style event was also filmed and put on the Pupils’ Portal of eQE, along with statements from and video election broadcasts from the candidates, together with reports from the Election Echo journal.

Room E6 was set up as a polling station and boys were able to vote both before and after School as well as during break times. Voting was brisk, with boys forming an orderly queue prior to casting their vote in the sealed ballot boxes.

A team of senior boys acted as election organisers, checking people off as they queued up, handing out the ballot papers and later helping to count the vote.

In his statement, Norbert focused on “fairness” and on “one very simple belief: it’s called doing the right thing”.

Adam Hilsenrath’s Conservative statement pointed to the record of the Coalition Government: “Let’s not go back to square one. Let’s finish the task we started,” he urged.