Members will vote throughout August
Voting is now open in the Green Party’s leadership election. Members will have until 30 August to decide who they want to be their next leader.
Vying for the top job there are two candidates. On the one hand, there is the party’s current deputy leader and London Assembly member Zack Polanski. On the other, there’s two sitting Green MPs – Ellie Chowns and Adrian Ramsay – the latter being one of the party’s incumbent co-leaders.
The contest has been the most high profile in the party’s history with more media interest in it than ever before. There have been multiple debates hosted by mainstream media outlets. Internal hustings have been given live coverage by the Guardian. Videos put out by candidates have done huge numbers on social media.
It’s also been one of the most bitter the party has endured. Candidates have been heavily criticising each other’s platforms. They’ve had heated clashes in public. And their outriders have been even more vicious.
All of this is fairly unconventional in Green Party terms. And with voting open until 30 August, there’s still a month of this to go.
But who’s on track to win? The real answer is that we don’t know. There hasn’t been any polling of the Green Party membership. Turnout has historically been low, meaning small fluctuations in the electorate can make a big difference. And while there is a section of the party that is very online and very public in its views, the vast majority of members aren’t sharing their views on Instagram and Bluesky.
Despite this, there is a general consensus emerging that, although the contest may end up being close, Polanski is currently the favourite to win. Either way, we’ll find out on September 2.
Simmering beneath the high profile contest for the leaders of the party though, is a battle for the party’s deputy leadership.
In a slightly complicated set of rules, the party could end up with a single deputy leader or it could end up with two. If Polanski is elected as a sole leader, there will be two deputies who must be of different genders. If Chowns and Ramsay are elected, there will instead be a single deputy.
There are nine candidates vying for these positions. They are as follows:
- Frank Adlington-Stringer (North East Derbyshire Councillor)
- Mothin Ali (Leeds Councillor)
- Thomas Daw (North Somerset Councillor)
- Antoinette Fernandez (2024 Hackney North and Stoke Newington Parliamentary Candidate)
- Alex Mace (Worcester Councillor)
- Rachel Millward (Wealden Councillor)
- Ash Routh (2024 Wakefield and Rothwell Parliamentary Candidate)
- Ani Townsend (Bristol Councillor)
- Chas Warlow (2024 Richmond Park Parliamentary Candidate)
This contest is almost impossible to predict given the number of candidates involved and the question as to whether there will be one or two positions up for grabs. Nevertheless, the names that are getting the most attention publicly on social media and in the loose ecology of WhatsApp groups that much internal party conversation takes place within are Rachel Millward, Mothin Ali, Frank Adlington-Stringer and Ani Townsend.
Chris Jarvis is head of strategy and development at Left Foot Forward
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