FBU risks general secretary election re-run over missing ballots

The Fire Brigades Union could be forced to re-run its general secretary election after more than 3,000 members did not receive ballot papers.

Steve Wright was declared the winner of the contest three weeks ago, defeating Matt Wrack by 1,752 votes.

However, the FBU has admitted that it has “come to our attention that 3,155 members were not initially sent ballot papers when the election opened”. Although 96 members later requested a ballot, 3,059 members did not receive a ballot paper before voting closed.

The union has sought legal advice and alerted the Certification Officer, which could see the ballot re-run.

READ MORE: Interview: New FBU general secretary on the danger of austerity, fighting Reform at work and socialism starting at home

The FBU clarified that Steve Wright will remain as general secretary while the union seeks assistance over the matter. Both Wright and Wrack have been written to by the union and have received an apology for the inconvenience caused.

In a statement, the FBU said: “We wish to stress that this error occurred as a result of a simple but unfortunate oversight from the independent scrutineer, which was missed by the union when final ballot figures were exchanged. The union wishes to apologise unreservedly to our membership for this.”

A union spokesperson said: “The FBU has been made aware of an error in the balloting process in our recent general secretary election. We have proactively reported the issue to the Certification Officer.”

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