Party system in county deplored

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32677, 5 August 1971, Page 12

Party system in county deplored

' The decision of the Citizens’ Association to nominate official candidates for the Waimairi County Council at the local body elections in October was described as a retrograde step by the Waimairi councillor for the Styx Riding (Cr A. A. Adcock).

In a letter to the Editor of "The Press,” Cr Adcock said he was convinced that .the riding,system as followed I in Waimairi did not lend itself to the party ticket, party political system. “Ratepayers have been able to elect or reject their councillor on the basis of service to the riding and the policy presented to its ratepayers. Now it appears that Mr H. P. Smith, who has been careful not to face the ratepayers in the Waimairi County, where he lives, is giving every encouragement to the • introduction of the partyticket system; which, in turn, 1 must lead to party politics round the council table and policies determined by cau-" cus behind closed door?. “We have been fortunate

that in the past we have not had candidates selected and Standing as part of a ‘party {machine’,” he says. “If the action of the association is to be an introduction to the party-ticket system of election in Waimairi, the Citizens’ Association must bear the responsibility for this retrograde step.”