Talk:1997 Conservative Party leadership election

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Final ballot, Julian Lewis and spoilt ballot et al[edit]

The statement "Julian Lewis announced that he was the only MP who did not vote" is possibly a bit ambiguous as Lewis announced on the BBC special covering the vote (which I think is still floating around on the internet) that he abstained. When the results were announced one abstention was recorded, presumably that of Lewis. This is technically slightly different from not voting as an abstention is formally recorded. Thus this statement might be reworded. Related to this issue is the fact only 162 votes and abstention are recorded which shows a drop in electorate of one voter from the two earlier ballots. In fact the result announced as broadcast live stated in addition that there was one spoilt ballot (to my knowledge the identity of the MP who did this has never been revealed, but Alan Clark's diary shows he planned to spoil his paper at one point).

Reading this, the fact that it records only 164 voters when 165 Conservative MPs had been elected in May could cause confusion as someone might think there was someone not voting who was not recorded as an abstention or otherwise. In fact the anomaly was due to the death of Michael Shersby between the general election and the voting starting. This might be worth mentioning. Dunarc (talk) 20:36, 17 August 2020 (UTC)[reply]