January 3015 Conservative Leadership Election

The **January 3015 Wiltshire Conservative Party Leadership Election** was held between January 11 and January 24, 3015 to elect the Leader of the Conservative Party and thusly the Prime Minister of Wiltshire. The ballot was triggered by the resignation of Prime Minister Martin Banks as Conservative Leader due to the vote of no confidence in his leadership the previous month.

## Background

Prime Minister Martin Banks had served as Party Leader since the forced resignation of Edward Jellico following the 3013 vote of no confidence in the Jellico Ministry. His leadership led to 3 general election victories including 2 majorities. However, towards the end of his administration, leaks began to surface that he may not be physically able to remain as Prime Minister. These leaks were later discovered to be coming from the Prime Minister's Principle Private Secretary, who often remarked that the Prime Minister found it hard to stand while delivering answers or statements to the National Assembly and to keep concentration during meetings, especially those around national security.

This peaked when in December 3014, it was announced that Banks had suffered from a minor stroke. This caused many, even those who were not already sceptical, into panic about whether Banks would be able to continue on as Prime Minister. The exact details are not known, however, days after Banks "resumed work", the Chairman of the Conservative Party, Mr. Alan Heisteg, announced that if the Prime Minister did not announce his resignation before New Year's Day, then he would hold a vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister's Leadership of the Conservative Party.

Banks refused to name a resignation date and on January 2, the Chairman announced a vote of no confidence within the Conservative Party. All Conservative AMs were to vote on whether they had confidence in the leadership of Martin Banks. Banks won the vote, 18 votes to 10. However, this was a clear division within the party.

Banks knew that it would be almost impossible to govern effectively with this kind of division within the party and so announced his resignation on January 11, triggering this election.

## Candidates

There were three candidates in the election. All three candidates qualified for the first ballot;

 Karen Hayes AM
 Andrea Drum AM
Former Chief Secretary to the Treasury
Former Home Minister

## Results

This election saw the first example of multiple rounds in the Conservative Party. The first ballot was held at 13.00 PM on January 17, 3014. Hayes was the frontrunner, however, many were unsure of her ability to win a majority on the first ballot. Loynd had been doing lots of press and so his popularity was rising. Most did not believe Drum would win the leadership, despite her significantly more experience. Drum was considered a radical.

Drum was eliminated on the first round after coming in last place. Loynd was one vote away from Hayes and so there was a real race on the second ballot. Loynd was able to convince enough Drum supporters to his side, allowing him to win the election by 2 votes.

 David Loynd AM

## Aftermath

David Loynd was elected Leader of the Conservative Party and formed the Frits Loynd Ministry (Wiltshire). He would later go onto form two more ministries (Second Loynd Ministry (Wiltshire) and the Third Loynd Ministry (Wiltshire)) before resigning following the Socialist Landslide victory in January 3016 (Frank Eddington)