CBWRA 2024 Chair Elections – the further adventures of a Banana republic

In the February committee meeting notes CBWRA claim they had ‘dealt with’ a complaint which I (Mike O’Driscoll) had submitted on the 15th January regarding the misconduct of the 2023 Chair elections. The truth is they ignored this complaint for more than a month and then when the publicity started getting too much they reluctantly sent me a meaningless reply a few lines long, which did not address any of the points raised. The ‘investigation’ of this complaint apparently consisted of the committee asking themselves if they thought it was true and deciding that it was not. The people who were the subject of the complaint found themselves not guilty. This means they are free to carry out the same misconduct in the 2024 Chair elections but with some additional manipulations according to their electoral timetable (which they have reluctantly been forced to publish).

CBWRA have also stated there will be no elections for the Directors of the Right to Manage company which will have full control over a £5 million service charge budget if Right to Manage goes through which now seems certain. Unelected, unaccountable, unsackable. The Directors will recruit each other without any resident input or consultation.

Additional games to be played with 2024 Chair elections:

The CBWRA committee meeting notes from February 2024 outline the timetable for the 2024 Chair elections, which CBWRA is clearly very reluctant to hold and had to be dragged to kicking and screaming:

1. They are two months late
2. Only leaseholders who are paid up members of CBWRA will be eligible to vote. The categories of residents who are allowed to vote has grown smaller at every election – in 2021 it included all leaseholders and tenants who had lived at CBW for 6 months or more; in 2023 all leaseholders could vote but in 2024 only leaseholders who are CBWRA members and who have paid their subscriptions will not be allowed to vote. This means that even fewer people than last time (300 approx out of 1150 properties) will vote
3. The only meeting between residents and candidates for Chair will be 4 days after voting has opened! And even this date is referred to as ‘tentative’ i.e. maybe moved even further after voting has started or not held at all. In my view this is a clear attempt at electoral manipulation – the hope seems to be that most people will vote before they have a chance to meet the candidates and therefore will be more likely to vote for the name which is most familiar (i.e. the current incumbents)
4. The deadline for manifestos to be submitted is the 2nd April – the same day that voting opens so clearly the intention is to circulate manifestos on the day that voting starts so that potential voters will not have an adequate chance to consider them before voting.

Imagine if political parties did this at local or national elections – i.e. you could not see their manifesto until voting opened, potential political opponents are banned from the media and you do not get the chance to meet the candidates or ask the questions until after voting has started. I think any reasonable person would call this electoral manipulation. I would call it further evidence of a banana republic model (i.e. systematically weakening or eliminating checks and balances on the power of the Chair and committee and making it almost impossible for fair elections to happen) continued by the ‘continuity Thompson’ twins.

All of the above is in addition to the games played in the 2023 elections which will no doubt be repeated in 2024. Namely:

• One candidate (Mike O’Driscoll) was banned from the CBW app for drawing attention to CBWRA’s misinformation about Right to Manage, and was subjected to a daily onslaught of character assassination and defamation by the former Chair and other committee members to which he was unable to respond . Despite numerous requests, CBWRA are still unable to provide any evidence of a valid reason for the closure of Mike O’Driscoll’s app account. This is censorship.
• Two candidates (Louis-Sebastian Kendall and Larisa Villar Hauser) stood jointly, thus pooling their votes, in a massive and clear violation of the CBWRA constitution.
• Chris Garston of Garton-Jones estate agents contacted around 500 leaseholders by email , while voting was live, sending them a voting link, and a strong recommendation to vote for Louis-Sebastian Kendall and Larisa Villar Hauser and only linking to their manifesto, not those of the other candidate (Mike O’Driscoll).
• One candidate withdrew from the ballot after (in his view) being intimidated by the former CBWRA Chair at a CBWRA committee meeting and following the meeting, in the CBW piazza. I believe this incident resulted in a complaint to the Police.
• CBWRA ask Rendall and Rittner to change the way they collect CBWRA membership fees because ”MOD was likely to run as chair” and the CBWRA committee ”needs funds to assist their cause”.
• It is not clear what percentage of leaseholders were contacted directly by CBWRA with the ‘official’ email which contained links to manifesto of all candidates
• It is not clear what percentage of leaseholders were not contacted at all, by any means
• The recording of the meeting between candidates for Chair and residents, just prior to voting ( a meeting which went very well for me and not quite so well for the former Chair or his proteges was ‘lost’ – according to the CBWRA secretary this was because of a ‘poor wifi connection’. (I am not sure why a phone requires wi-fi to record but I guess I don’t understand CBWRA technology).

I can only assume that Larissa Villar Hauser and Louis Sebastian Kendall are terrified of a fair and free elections and given their performance, their total lack of ideas or policies and given their evident contempt for consulting with residents I can understand why.

CBWRA proposed timetable for 2024 Chair elections:

Call for manifestos – 19 March (more than 2 months later than the due date)

·       Deadline for applications – 2 April

·       Voting opens – 2 April   (i.e. voting opens the same day as manifestos are released)

·       Meet and greet – 6 April (tentative)  (the only event where residents can meet candidates and ask questions happens at least  4 day after voting opens – there is no commitment to allow online participation and last year the recording was mysteriously lost)

·       Voting closes – 12 April, 9pm

·       Result announced – 15 April

·       Chair takeover (if a new Chair is appointed) – 1 May