Zorro predicts end of EDDC Conservative Party rule thanks to Cull Coalition

Zorro has been holidaying on and off over recent weeks and has now got his political mojo working fully again. But Zorro hasn’t been ignoring local events. Indeed now that the nominations for the East Devon District Council seats for the election on 7 May have been published it is time to put some scrutiny to them.

And we see a real challenge being mounted across the District Council to the current majority Conservatives group whose trust by the electors has been stretched beyond breaking point. Indeed, in many parts of the District Council this is very much an understatement.

Zorro’s rough and ready calculations show that in total 133 candidates are standing across the District Council. Strikingly when compared to the elections last time around in 2011 the Conservatives are facing greater opposition. This really isn’t surprising given the way the majority Conservative group on the District Council has performed over the past four years.

At this point out of the 59 seats on the District Council a total of three have already been declared as there were no opposing candidates standing. The breakdown of how the parties faired in these seats is –

Conservative	2
Independent	1

 The breakdown of the candidates standing in the remaining seats is - 

Conservative	55
Independent East Devon Alliance	22
Liberal Democrats	19
Independent	11
UKIP	9
Labour	6
Greens	5
No declared affiliation	3

It was never going to be a case in this election that the Conservative Party would inwardly collapse, although a couple of its old guard have changed the colour of their shirt! Zorro waits to see whether this is just a tactical change or a conversion on the road to Damascus.

Looking at the 2011 District Council election results and seeing who polled what number of votes, and then comparing this to the full list Ward by Ward of who standing, and on what party ticket they are standing Zorro predicts that in the next Council the Conservative Party will not have a ruling majority. The end of Conservative Party rule in East Devon District Council is coming!

Councillor Paul Diviani. About to become EDDC's ex-Leader

The number of Conservative seats held this time would be reduced even further. This would only happen if in those Wards where they are facing a range of candidates from parties (and no party) who could find common cause in wanting to see the back of as many Conservative Councillors as possible a number, even at this stage, withdrew their candidatures.

Zorro realises that this is probably expecting too much but a Cull Coalition could be formed if candidates and their parties were bold enough. Zorro has argued for this before and argued it directly with the Labour Party, Liberal Democrats and the Greens over the East Devon Parliamentary seat, where the Greens have decided not to split the Cull Coalition vote.

It would be hugely disappointing if after all of the hard work by so many people locally to oppose the arrogant District Council Conservative majority group over recent years, if they slipped through the net because a Cull Coalition just doesn’t quite maximise its vote.

But, Zorro confidently repeats his prediction that the Conservative Party will not be the majority ruling group beyond the impending election.

Ballot box. Great way to bring about change

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It’s time for change! It’s time for challenge!