SO NEAR, yet so far! That was the reaction to Respect candidate Mukhtar Master coming within seven votes of a sensational victory in Preston's Town Centre ward.
Mukhtar, a local trade unionist and anti-war activist, scored 647 votes - 37% of the votes cast, and 3% up on his vote in 2004 - but was narrowly defeated by Labour's Ron Atkins with 654 votes.
Respect knew it was always going to be an uphill task. Ron Atkins is a well respected and long established councillor - he served as a Preston MP for nearly 10 years in the 1960s and 1970s and had been a councillor for the area for over two decades.
He is on the soft left Tribune wing of the Party, rather than an ardent Blairite. For Respect to come so close with a relatively unknown candidate was a ment. The previously
Much blame was put on the presence of a Green candidate Party locally on the ballot paper. Despite the impressive work of Town Centre ward Respect councillor Michael Lavalette on environ- areas of strength win the seat back, mental issues like the with 'paper' Ribble barrage, recycling and transport, the previously inactive Green Party locally appeared to deliberately target Respect's areas of strength with 'paper' candidates who did no work, issued no leaniels ana Tallea to attena tne count.
They won only a small vote of 82, but it could have been sufficient to deny Respect a victory.
Elsewhere in Preston, Respect's Elaine Abbot put up a strong challenge in the Riversway ward she once held as a Labour councillor, increasing her vote by 2% to 26%. Across the five wards of the City that Respect contested, Labour won all five, but the Respect vote was maintained at a staggering 27%, despite the presence of more candidates from the Greens and Lib Dems. Respect has now moved into second place to challenge Labour in four of the five wards. These results were a tremendous testament to the energy of Respect in Labour's heartland with extensive canvassing, street work and the distribution of over 40,000 leaflets by dozens of SUU LUS While being ultimately disappointed at not winning at least one seat, the results show that Respect is here to stay and will fight on in central Preston. The focus will now move to the May 2007 elecinactive Green
tions where Michael Lavalette's seat will be up for appeared to deliberately All the signs are target Respect's that despite
Labour's attempt to Respect will be in a strong position to candidates who hold the seat and did no work, extend its influence
sewhere. issued no leaflets Preston Respect and failed to will improve its
organisation and attend the count. continue to agitate
and be active on the key issues facing local people from the war in Iraq to the choking of local streets by traffic and the fight for decent services for all the community.