The people of Carmarthenshire have voted and they have chosen their councillors to represent them for the next 5 years. What has gone before is now water under the bridge. No grudges will be held and Meryl Gravel will sail away into the sunset on a pea green boat. As if.
What we saw during the campaigning was brutal, often close to the wind and sometimes positively ugly. It is hard to see how this will not spill out onto the floor of the chamber at County Hall when the council resumes its business. Plaid have invited the independents into the parlour and we all know what the spider said to the fly. Such a beautiful parlour you ever did spy. Where does this leave the victorious Labour lot in Llanelli with their cleansing of the town of any sign of Plaid Cymru?
Rumours were abound about possible Labour Independent coalitions with provisos regarding some Labour councillors. Of course rumours are the things that start with a pleasant pheasant plucker’s son and turn into something completely different.
There is no doubting the impact of some of the mud slinging and argy bargy, which took place not on the doorstep but on blogs, Twitter and Facebook. Issues like the Welsh language and Llangennech School. Llanerch fields, Parc Howard, the Wellness Centre, parks and playgrounds and who could forget the battle of the litter stick and orange bags. Llanelli really has never been cleaner on the streets at least than during the run up to these elections.
Democracy we are told is something, which our forefathers fought and died for. The right to vote and put that X on a piece of paper seems such a simple thing to do yet the turnout was barely over 35.99% in Glanymor. Who were the 35.99%? More importantly who were the 64.1% and why didn’t they turn out?
The significance of casting one’s vote could not be highlighted any more than in the battle for Glanymor. Sean Rees once Plaid Cymru’s golden boy (he still may be) had his sights set on becoming the candidate for MP. All we know is he fell from grace after a meeting at Glenalla Chapel to be replaced by Mari Arthur, a successful business woman and darling of the party. Sean was responsible for the Llanelli campaign for Helen Mary Jones at the last election for AM for Llanelli and that was a close call, with a recount.
Surely not in Sean’s wildest dreams would he imagine being involved in a recount for the Glanymor ward now that he was standing for County Councillor. Rumours reached the media on the stage overlooking the golden podium where dreams are made that there was only one vote in it. Remember that pleasant pheasant, etc? The candidates were called to the stage where the returning officer and CEO of Carmarthenshire County Council Mark James was about to make someone’s dreams come true.
As Mr James read out the scores on the doors there was a sharp intake of breath amongst the fairy folk gathered in front of the podium. Sean Rees had indeed lost to Labour’s John Prosser by one single vote. The soul voter who bothered to place that cross on Prosser’s ballot paper made all the difference. Sean appeared to take it well and may never know the identity of that voter.
What next for Sean Rees you may ask? As with most fairy tales this one has a happy ending. Sean was voted in to become a town councillor for Llanelli.
