Labour Party deputy leadership election, 2013

The Labour Party deputy leadership election, 2013 was a contest held in the March of 2013 for the deputy leaderhsip position in the Labour Party. The contest was called one week after the split in the party bewteen the more centrist Justin Abrahams leaving to join the Social Christian Party. Party Leader Marcus Villanova called upon the Labour Congress to set up the rules and election standards for the contest and to alert all party and affiliated party members to know they had a vote in the contest. The official results were released March 25th, 2013 in an event at the Labour Congress.

Rules and Candidates
Prior to the election there were no actual standards for internal elections. The Labour Congress passed certain rules and regulations for the elections and how voting would take place. The system used for voting would be the alternative vote system where they would rank all the candidates in order from first place to the last remaining place on the ballot. Party members could acess a ballot through three ways: First, going to a local labour party office, picking up a ballot and by inserting their Party ID and other information, vote and hand it back to the Party office leader. Second, through postal vote to the Labour Party office marked "Vote" or over the internet by inserting information like the other two methods. All party members, NPO members, and affiliated union members were able to vote in the elections.

According to the official party numbers stated that 16,023 members were affiliated with NPO, Labour and a Union, showing most of it's support came from Union affiliated members. A total of 11,572 members are in unions which means about 4,451 members are non-labour union affiliated.

To become a candidate for the Deputy leadership position a candidate must be a MOTC, supported by 10 other Labour Congress members, and support from a local branch of one union. For this election the deadline to file for nomination was March 1st, where voting would begin a day later.

Candidates

 * February 25th, 2013 - Steven Robinson was the first to announce his run for Deputy Leader. He is of the socialist faction and is seen as a fresh look for the Labour Party and is very popular among independents and moderates around Lovia.
 * February 27th, 2013 - Alžbeta Lenka was the first and only woman to announce her leadership. Being leader of the NPO she had early support from the NPO, and Oceana voters. She sits in the NPO faction, a social democratic faction.
 * February 27th, 2013 - Thomas Inouye announced his candidacy in his hometown and Labour stronghold of Adoha. He annouced this with support of the local chapter of Harmony. He found much support in asian Labour voters.

Campaign
Although the deadline was March 1st, the three candidates already started campaigning having reached the level of support by the 27th of February and no other credible candidates going to contest the position. By the 28th all three candidates released there campaign colors and logos. The first and only debate was set to be held and televised March 14th, with all candidates invited and announced February 28th.

On March first many of the local affiliated unions came out in support between the three candidates. Inouye led in Labour support from local unions, where local leaders would claim there support for a candidate and the people in the Union still have the choice to support any candidate they want though. Still the support leads to campaigning that the candidates have support from the workers, in trying to sway the remaining 1/4 of the party to support them. By March 1st, Thomas Inouye had gained support from 3,008 union members from local unions, the most compared to the other two candidates. Lenka was also seen as a strong candidate as she was able to capture about 2,400 union member support which was in a close third to Robinson's 2,480.

On March 2nd, many people read the labour endorsed Clymene Today which had an op-ed from Villanova about the state of the Party and the three poteinal candidates. He said the election would bring the party closer, and help them win more seats in Congress.

Endorsements
Here are a list of different types of endorsments recieved for each candidate:
 * Steven Robinson
 * Labour Unions: 2,489 members
 * Full endorsement: none
 * Partial: Vox Populi (most), Lovia United (most), Union Lovia (most), Union of Lovia Educators (most)
 * Labour Congress members: 40 congressmen
 * MOTCs: none
 * Newspapers: none
 * other: supported by the Lovian Judaism Brotherhood because of his support of the jewish culture
 * Alzbeta Lenka
 * Labour Unions: 2,409 members
 * Full endorsement: none
 * Parial: Miners Union of Lovia (most), Lovia United, Union Lovia
 * Labour Congress members: 18 congressmen
 * MOTCs: none
 * Newspapers: Newport News
 * other: none
 * Thomas Inouye
 * Labour Unions: 3,008 members
 * Full endorsement: Harmony
 * Partial: Union Lovia, Union of Lovian Educators (most), Players Union of Lovia (most), Union of Bus Drivers and Mechanics (most)
 * Labour Congress members: 25 congressmen
 * MOTCs: none
 * Newspapers: Freedom Press
 * other: none

Unions
The first endorsement came when Thomas Inouye announced his candidacy for the position, from the largest chapter of Harmony, with 220 members. By the March 1st, the deadline for candidates, most Unions had already came out in support and mostly evenly split.

Labour Congress members and MOTCs
Like the unions endorsing by the March 1st deadline, 83 Labour Congress members endorsed candidates, 40 of them supporting Robinson. No MOTCs have endorsed yet.

Newspapers
The first newspaper to endorse a candidate was the Newport News, a weekly center-left newspaper from Oceana, to endorse Lenka. Right after that endorsement came one from the Green Party affiliated Freedom Press for Inouye.